



...' ' . ■ 










; 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Shelf -•-■S3. 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
















































































































































































































































SERIOUS HOURS 


OF 


AYOUNG LADY 




CHARLES SAINTE FOI. 


Translated from the French 




BY PHJXjALETKS. 




rr V.-* cm 


NEW YORK; 
1884. 




The Library 
OF Cong Ress 


f EDOUARD CHARLES FABRE, 

Bishop of Montreal. 


Copyright 1884, by NICHOLAS BRAY. 








PREFACE. 


A celebrated author has justly remarked that 
Christian women can, like the guardian angels, 
invisibly govern the world ; and the author of 
the “ Serious Hours of a Young Lady ” has 
very appropriately made this truth the basis of 
his book, since the object that he had in view 
in writing it was to point out the important 
role that woman plays in society, and to give 
the young girl such instructions as will enable 
her, in due time, to discharge, in a worthy man¬ 
ner, the duties of her calling. In doing this he 
has given evidence of very elevated views and 
of a profound knowledge of the human heart. 
The book is a tissue of practical counsels, 
couched in the clearest and most delicate terms. 



4 


PREFACE. 


Hence, judging from its intrinsic worth, and the 
universal welcome with which it has been 
hailed in the original, we feel that it is no 
exaggeration to assert that it has rendered and 
will still render inestimable good to society. 

After having lucidly exposed the importance 
of woman’s mission in this world, and pointed 
out the evils that prevent its realization, the 
author ingeniously brings before the mind’s eye 
the different phases of her life, the varied pro¬ 
cess of development that she undergoes in all 
her faculties, the dangerous influences to which 
she is constantly exposed, the means that should 
be employed to ensure her protection. 

We behold her on the threshold of childhood 
a tiny, timid and retiring creature, naturally 
disposed to attach her affections to all that is 
pure and elevated, to everything that conduces 
to the practice of virtue and the love of God. 
While yet a child she is the little confidante 


PREFACE. 


5 


and angel of consolation of her brothers and 
sisters in their pains and difficulties. At a 
more advanced age we see her consoling her 
aged parents in their sorrows and afflictions; 
and when she merges into womanhood she 
becomes either the spouse of Jesus Christ or 
of man, only to continue the same work of 
beneficence in some charitable asylum, or in 
the midst of domestic cares. But ere she 
attains this last stage of life how numerous and 
great are the difficulties that she must encoun¬ 
ter, the dangers to which she will be exposed, 
and the snares to entrap her ! 

Hence, to ensure her safety and prepare her 
to act the important role that she holds in 
society, her education must be the work of 
piety, modesty and retirement. All that inter¬ 
feres with their action in her soul must be 
peremptorily removed. Worldly pleasures with 
their numerous cortege should never have 


6 


PREFACE. 


access to the sanctuary of her heart, for their 
poisoned influence blasts the fairest flower in 
her crown of simplicity. 

But, alas ! we confess, with deep regret, that 
there are many thoughtless tutors who seem¬ 
ingly ignore the grave responsibility of their 
charge, and unwarrantably parade the little 
one before the world’s gaze, which creates in 
the heart evil impressions, frivolous tastes and 
inordinate desires. And, even when they 
would all prove faithful to their trust, it is a 
noted fact that society, friends and companions 
wield a powerful influence over the mind 
and heart of a young girl, which, when allowed 
to continue, most invariably proves pernicious 
to her spiritual and temporal welfare. 

Hence, she stands in need of a true friend, 
a faithful adviser, on whom she can depend for 
safe instruction, and to whom she can have 
recourse as often as need be. The “ Serious 


PREFACE. 


7 


Hours ” is unquestionably all this; it speaks 
openly, firmly, but mildly. It inspires the 
young girl with that genuine, lofty esteem that 
she should have for herself and for the dignity 
of her sex. It clearly defines her line of 
conduct in all the most critical incidents and 
circumstances of life, so that she cannot be 
deceived unless that she wilfully shuts her eyes 
to the light of truth. It is all that the author 
proposed to make it, a first class book of instruc¬ 
tion for young ladies, showing a careful study 
of all their wants and a happy choice of the 
remedies to meet them. And, believing that 
such a valuable book ought to be made access¬ 
ible to all nations, we have ventured to present 
it to the public in an English dress. How far 
we have succeeded in rendering both its form 
and spirit we leave the public to decide. And, 
while we are fully aware that, in transferring 
the genius of one language to another, some of 


8 


PREFACE. 


the original delicate shades of beauty must be 
inevitably sacrificed—the present translation 
not excepted—still we are happy to say that the 
work was one of love and deep interest to us, 
on account of its importance and good to 
society. 

Translator. 



Translator’s 

Chapter 


Chapter 

Chapter 

Chapter 

Chapter 

Chapter 


CONTENTS: 


Page 

Preface ..... 3 

I.—Importance of the Time of 
Youth ; Difficulties and 
Dangers that Women 
Meet With in Life, and 
the Necessity of Pro¬ 


viding for Them . . 9 

II.—Illusions of Youth ; Value 
of Time at this Period of 
Life .... 22 

III. —The Heart of Woman; the 

Necessity of Regulating 
it During Youth . . 33 

IV. —The Dignity of Woman . 47 

V.—Eve and Mary ... 60 

VI.—Eve and Mary (Contin¬ 
ued) .... 73 



Contents. 


Chapter 

VII.—The World . 

Page 

90 

Chapter 

VIII.—The Same Subject (Contin¬ 



ued) .... 

103 

Chapter 

IX.—The Will 

113 

Chapter 

X.—The Imagination 

130 

Chapter 

XI.—Piety .... 

• 143 

Chapter 

XII.—Vocation .... 

158 

Chapter 

XIII.—A Serious Mind 

174 

Chapter 

XIV.—Choice of Companions 

190 

Chapter 

XV.—Toilet .... 

200 

Chapter 

XVI.—Desire to Please 

211 

Chapter 

XVII.—Curiosity 

227 

Chapter XVIII.—Meditation and Reflection . 

238 

Chapter 

XIX.—Obedience to Parents 

251 

Chapter 

XX.—Melancholy 

267 

Chapter 

XXI.—On Reading • 

281 

Chapter 

XXII.—Same Subject (Continued) . 

293 


ieriou<j 



of a : Jounjg ; padg. 


CHAPTER I. 


IMPORTANCE OF THE TIME OF YOUTH ; DIFFICULTIES 
AND DANGERS THAT WOMEN MEET WITH IN LIFE, 
AND THE NECESSITY OF PROVIDING FOR THEM. 


TjY IIE most important period of life is that in 
which we are the better able, in making 
good use of the present, to repair the past and 
prepare for the future; that period holds the 
intermediate place between the age of infancy 
and the age of maturity, embracing the advan- 






10 


SERIOUS HOURS 


tages of both, presenting at the same time the 
flowers of the one with the fruits of the other. 
In order to prepare for the future we need a 
certain assistance from the past, for this prepa¬ 
ration demands a certain maturity of j udgment 
and a force of will that experience alone can 
give. 

The child, devoid as it is of personal expe¬ 
rience, can, by turning that of others to good 
account, make up for the deficiencies of its 
youth, and prepare for the future without having 
to learn in the severe school of self-experience. 
But, through an unfortunate occurrence of cir¬ 
cumstances, and very often without any fault 
of theirs, the greater part of children attain the 
age of manhood and womanhood without having 
reaped the precious advantages offered them by 
the first stage of life, when the soul is most 
susceptible of receiving the impress of grace 
and virtue. A vitiated or inadequate primitive 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


11 


education, bad example, pernicious instruction ? 
perchance, or at least personal levity of charac¬ 
ter, combined with that of childhood, deprive 
this age of many advantages, and call for a total 
reparation of the past, at a period of life that 
should be the living figure of hope. 

Happy, indeed, are those who have only the 
levity and negligences of childhood to repair, 
and who have never felt the crushing weight of 
a humiliating and grievous fault! Alas! that 
purity, that innocence so common formerly 
among children, is every day disappearing from 
their midst, many among them have become 
the victims of sin ere the passions of the heart 
manifested their presence; and their hearts have 
quivered from the sting of remorse ere they felt 
the perfidious lurings of pleasure. Many have 
received from sin that doleful experience, that 
premature craftiness, which, far from enlighten¬ 
ing the mind, obscures and blinds it,—which, 


12 


SERIOUS HOURS 


far from fortifying the will, enfeebles and ener¬ 
vates it. 

Such is the light by which we can truly see 
the importance that should be attached to the 
time of youth. At this period of life sin has not 
yet taken deep root in the heart,—it has not at 
least assumed the frightful magnitude of one of 
those inveterate habits, justly called habits of 
second nature, which invade and pollute the 
sacred sanctuary of both body and soul, form¬ 
ing in the earliest instincts, inclinations and 
desires so violent, so obstinate, that super¬ 
human efforts with a life-long struggle are the 
consequences entailed upon the unfortunate 
victims, who desire to hold them in subjection. 

However, it is invariably true that, if the 
passions peculiar to youth virulently assail vir¬ 
tue and expose the heart to the seductions of 
pleasure, they also give a great facility of doing 
good, by inflaming youthful zeal which age 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


13 


never fails to cool. The ardor aroused by them 
for the commission of evil can be easily em¬ 
ployed for the practice of virtue ; they are young 
and fiery steeds which God has placed at your 
disposal, ready to obey your orders. Attach 
them to the chariot of your will, they will not 
fail to draw you in the direction that you may 
open to their impetuosity. It matters not to 
them whether they run upon the way of vice 
or virtue,—all that they require is to go, to run 
and not to be constrained to inaction, which 
kills them. They must be managed by a reso¬ 
lute will which holds the reins with a firm grip, 
and by a calm intelligence, skilled to direct 
them. 

Trees, while young, can be easily plied into 
any direction that man may wish to give them. 
The same may be said of hearts in which the 
frost of age has not cooled the ardor and impe¬ 
tuosity of desire. Their energy and vivacity, 


14 


SERIOUS HOURS 


whether for good or evil, never forsake them. 
They are like those spirited racers which are 
no sooner down than up again, for, swift as a 
flash, they will turn you to God by repentance 
and love, the moment you have the misfortune 
of losing Him by sin. Be then full of confidence 
and hope, young soul, to whom God has opened 
with a liberal hand the spring-time of life ; be 
grateful to Him for so signal a favor, and, like 
a wise economist, profit by the resources that 
He places at your disposal. But, should the 
past recall some doleful memories, be not 
dismayed; be hopeful and, re-animating your 
courage, prepare for the future by sowing at 
present the germs of those beautiful virtues 
which grace irrigates, and whose fruits will 
rejoice your old age and atone for the sterility 
of your earlier years. 

Your future happiness is insured if you fully 
comprehend the importance of the epoch which 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


15 


you now begin, and the greatness of its results 
for the rest of your life. Let past delinquencies 
become an incentive, stimulating your will to 
energetic action. Let the need of repairing the 
past, and the importance of preparing for the 
future inspire you with generous resolutions 
and an ardent desire of acquiring all the virtues 
necessary to a person of your sex and position, 
in order that you may discharge in a worthy 
manner all the duties which may be required 
of you. Eegard the future with a calm and 
firm eye, without exaggerating the difficulties, 
but also without dissembling the dangers. The 
first condition required to avoid a danger is to 
know it, for the ignorance that conceals from 
us the snares which we should avoid is—after 
the evil inclination that leads as into them— 
man’s greatest misfortune, and the most disas¬ 
trous of the effects of original sin. 

Women, even in the most humble walks of 


16 


SERIOUS HOURS 


life, can scarcely hope now-a-days to enjoy that 
sweet, calm and peaceful life which was for¬ 
merly insured by the purest morals and the 
most pious customs. 

If the world, spite of that inordinate desire 
for reform and innovation which consumes it, 
has not yet seriously endeavored to withdraw 
woman from the circle to which Providence 
would have her devote the activity of her mind 
and life ; if it has consented till now to have 
her shun the theatre and the whirlpool of poli¬ 
tical commotions, it will he extremely difficult 
for her to escape its counter-shock, and preserve 
her self-composure and serenity of soul in the 
midst of those turbulent events which absorb 
her husband’s life, that of her children, of her 
father and brothers. If it was easy for her to 
preserve her heart at a tender age from the se¬ 
ductions of the world and the dangerous snares 
of vanity or pleasure, through the sweet in- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


17 


fluence of those more modest, and at the same 
time more rigid customs which identified her 
thoughts and affections with the family circle; 
such is not the case at present, for an unfortu¬ 
nate necessity, invested with the vain title of 
propriety, compels her to seek in a more fashion¬ 
able, a more numerous, and consequently an 
unsuitable society, distractions or pastimes for 
which she is not made, and which recreate 
neither body, nor mind, nor heart. 

The feverish agitation and insatiable thirst 
for enjoyment which seem to prevail among all 
ages and classes of the present day is enigma¬ 
tical. Life now-a-days must he passed in a 
state of constant excitement. The peaceful 
calm productive of a modest and pure life ap¬ 
pear to tfoe imagination like a monotonous and 
disdainful sleep. The young girl herself has 
scarcely left the paternal home in which she 
passed her youthful days when she dreams of 


18 


SERIOUS HOURS 


the pleasing emotions and incomparable joys 
promised her by a flashy and fashionable life. 
The examples which come under her notice 
wherever she goes or wherever she turns her 
eyes,—the language which she hears, and the 
very air which she breathes,—all give her, as 
it were, a foretaste of the false pleasures which 
now fascinate her imagination. 

This is, most assuredly, one of the worst signs 
of our time. Up to the present day women, for 
the most part, faithful to their vocation and to 
the duties of their station in life, have carefully 
preserved in the family circle that sacred fire 
of Christian virtue which forms magnanimous 
souls, and that piety which produces saints. 
Their hearts, like the Ark of the Covenant, have 
preserved intact those tables of the divine law 
which admonish men of their duties, and inspire 
them with a firm hope. They have not fixed 
their hearts on the vain and frivolous joys of 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


19 


earth; no, heaven was their aim. Preserved 
from the contagion of worldly interests and 
desires, their thoughts feasted on elevated and 
heavenly objects. What will become of society 
if, deprived of the resources it found in their 
virtues, it meets with no other barrier on the 
steep declivity down which it is being impelled 
by cupidity and the love of pleasure ? What 
will be the fate of future generations if they 
are not sanctified in the sanctuary of the family 
by the benevolent influence of woman, and 
fortified against the seductions of vice by 
that odor of grace and sanctity which the heart 
of a Christian mother exhales ? 

Be not discouraged at the sight of difficulties 
that hover over the horizon of the future ; on 
the contrary, they should inspire you with 
greater courage and energy. The less help you 
will obtain from trusted sources of reliance, the 
more earnestly should you seek in God and 


20 


SERIOUS HOURS 


yourself what you look for in vain elsewhere. 
You may expect to see diminish, from day to 
day, the number of those saintly souls from 
whom you could obtain advice, support or light. 

For you, perhaps, like many others, life will 
be a desert which you must traverse almost 
alone, without meeting a single soul to reach 
you a helping hand in your necessities and 
trials. Being about to set out on this pilgrim¬ 
age of life, which will perhaps be long, fatiguing 
and painful, be supplied with an ample provi¬ 
sion of strength, patience, virtue and energy. 
And, if happily deceived in your fears, you find 
the road which leads to eternity smooth under 
your feet, you will at least have the merit of 
having been wise in your conduct, for not less 
moral strength is required to bear the happiness 
of prosperity than the misfortune of adversity. 
Happiness here below is something so extreme¬ 
ly perilous to man’s eternal welfare that few 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


21 


can taste it without injury to their souls. 
Hence, in order to guard against its fatal 

influence, not less preparation, nor less time, 
nor less efforts, are required than to suffer 

the privations imposed by adversity, for 
experience proves that the former is more 

destructive than the latter to the work of 

eternal salvation. 


22 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER II. 

ILLUSIONS OF YOUTH, VALUE OF TIME AT THIS PERIOD 
OF LIFE. 

Mnf-HE age of youth is the age of illusions, 
ardent desires, and fanciful hopes. Youth 
is like a fairy whose magical wand evokes the 
most graceful images and the most alluring 
phantoms. This ignorance of the doleful real¬ 
ities concealed in the future is a gift of divine 
goodness which, in order that life might not be 
too hitter, casts a beneficent veil over the sor¬ 
rows that await us ; God screens the future 
from us to let us enjoy the present. Ear be it 
from me to remove this veil which renders you 
such kind service. But, apart from this screen 
which the good God has placed between you 
and the miseries of this life, there is another of 
a darker and heavier shade, fabricated by the 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


23 


imagination, and which it draws with a perfi¬ 
dious complacency over the object which it 
behooves us the most to know and avoid—a 
seductive and deceitful veil which, while pre¬ 
senting things to us in a false light, exposes 
us to most deplorable illusions and inevitable 
dangers. 

God permits that we should ignore many 
things, but He does not wish that we should 
be deceived in anything. He is truth itself; 
error can never claim His acquiescence. 

If prudence and respect for God’s work 
make it a duty for me to leave intact the veil 
that He has drawn between you and the 
future, I would consider it highly criminal in 
me if I did not endeavor to remove that by 
which your imagination seeks to conceal its 
illusions and its errors. It is not my wish or 
design to trouble the present by exaggerated 
anxiety; but, on the other hand, I do not wish 


24 


SERIOUS HOURS 


to leave you under a false impression, fed by 
delusive hopes relative to the future. My 
desire is that, while enjoying with gratitude 
and simplicity the happiness or peace which 
God has bestowed upon you in the spring¬ 
time of life, you may profit by the calm and 
tranquillity it affords you to prepare for the 
future, and to anticipate a means of soothing 
its sorrows and bitterness. 

While the soil of your heart is yet untilled 
and moist, and while your hands are yet filled 
with those heavenly seeds which God has given 
you in abundance, I desire that you may sow 
them in the light and strength of divine grace, 
to develop in them the heavenly germs which 
they contain, that you may be enabled to reap 
at a later time an abundant harvest of virtues^ 
holy joy and merit before God and men. I 
desire that you may learn to turn to good 
account all the natural resources that you 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


25 


possess, and acquire that knowledge of your¬ 
self which enlightens the mind without trou¬ 
bling the heart; I do not wish to discourage 
nor flatter you, I only wish to instruct and 
fortify you. 

Do not think that the river of life will always 
flow for you as it does at present, broad, deep, 
calm and limpid between two flowery banks. 
Age will diminish those waters and deprive 
their banks of their charm and freshness. The 
flame of passion, like a burning wind, will rise, 
and more than once perhaps will bring to the 
surface the mud that rankles in the bottom, 
and thus destroy its limpidity. 

A day will come, and before long, when, 
stripped of all those exterior advantages which 
please the senses, you will possess only those 
qualities, less striking, but more solid, which 
satisfy the mind and heart and attract the com¬ 
plaisant regard of God and the angels. Youth 


26 


SERIOUS HOURS 


will quickly pass, more quickly than you think, 
and the subsequent period of life will last much 
longer, hence, in all justice to yourself, let its 
preparation absorb your attention. 

If you had a long sojourn to make in a place 
close by, would it be reasonable on your part 
to pay less attention to the place of your des¬ 
tination than to the few fleeting moments it 
would require to go thither. Youth is not a 
stopping-place, it is a passage, a time of prepara¬ 
tion ; it is to the whole life what the florid period 
is to the gardener, or seed-time to the farmer 

Oh ! if you did but fully comprehend the 
value of each hour during this most important 
period of life, the value of each thought of your 
mind, of each sentiment of your heart, wjth 
what extreme care you would watch over all 
the movements of your soul, nay, even the 
external movements of your body. 

That fugitive thought which enters your 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


27 


mind, fanned by curiosity’s wing, may seem 
quite trivial; to dwell on and delight in it may 
be to you something indifferent. That sentiment 
which, scarcely formed, commences to ger¬ 
minate in your heart, and to produce therein 
emotions so imperceptible that you are but im¬ 
perfectly conscious of its presence, seems insig¬ 
nificant at first sight; that unguarded glance 
seemed to you a matter of no import, and 
which, at an earlier or later period of your life, 
would have but little consequence. At an earlier 
age the impression, it is true, would be lively but 
inconsistent, and the levity of childhood would 
soon have replaced it by another; later it 
would be found so superficial and trivial that it 
would be soon forgotten among the multiplicity 
of thoughts which absorb the mind at the 
age of maturity; but, during the youthful years, 
everything that comes under the notice of the 
senses sinks deeply into the soul, penetrating 


28 


SERIOUS HOURS 


its very substance, the faculties still retain 
all the vivacity of youth, while already they 
participate in that firmness which is character¬ 
istic of the age of maturity. 

That thought is, perhaps, the first link in a 
chain of thoughts and images which will be 
the torment of your conscience and the bane 
of your life. That sentiment to which you 
imprudently pandered is perhaps the source of 
countless fears, regrets, remorse and sorrows. 
That imprudent glance is perhaps the first spark 
of a conflagration which nothing can extinguish, 
and which will destroy your brightest hopes. 

If, as yet, you are ignorant of all the evil of 
which an imprudent glance may be productive, 
recall to mind the example furnished us by the 
Sacred Scriptures in the person of David, who, 
for his imprudent glance at the wife of Urias, 
committed two crimes, the names of which you 
should ignore, and suffered a life of sorrow, re- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


29 


pentance, bitterness and anguish : a life which 
even yet serves to express the sorrow and re¬ 
pentance of imprudent souls who have yielded 
to the allurements of the senses. And, never¬ 
theless, David had attained the age of discretion 
when the mind is firm and the will is strong; 
David was the cherished one of God ; he was 
just and virtuous, one on whom God had special 
designs of mercy. What a terrible example ! 
What a severe, but at the same time instructive, 
lesson! 

Young Christian soul, may it never be your 
sad experience to learn the effect of an impru¬ 
dent glance which would exact from you the 
bitter wages of countless tears and regrets. Is 
there anything in the material world so beauti¬ 
ful, so beneficent as the light and heat that we 
receive from the sun ; is there among material 
things a livelier image of the goodness of God 
towards us ? And, nevertheless, let the sun 


30 


SERIOUS HOURS 


shine upon the young and tender flower or 
vine immediately after a shower of rain, and it 
will cause them to droop and wither. The 
reason is quite obvious, for at no time is a being 
so frail and delicate as at the moment of its 
formation. There is a critical period for all 
beings, during which the greatest possible 
care is necessary. In this relation, what is 
said of the body may be said of the soul; 
character is formed and developed according 
to the same laws which regulate the deve¬ 
lopment of the physical constitution. 

Are you not aware of the extraordinary care 
that must be taken of those organs that are the 
chief motors of the body, while they are under 
process of development ? Are you not aware 
that the fresh air which you inhale and which 
purifies and invigorates the blood contains for 
you the germ of death, which j ustifies in your 
good parents,the anxious care they take of your 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


31 


health, but which you perhaps regard as 
entirely unnecessary ? 

Now, what the lungs are to the human 
body, that the heart is to the soul. It is 
by the heart that we breathe the spiritual 
and divine atmosphere that sustains our 
moral life. This atmosphere is composed 
of three elements,—truth, goodness and 
beauty, which envelop and penetrate the 
soul’s substance; as it is the respiratory organ 
of the mind it follows that for the heart, as 
well as for the lungs, there is an epoch of 
development wdiich is dangerous, and which, 
consequently, demands the greatest possible 
care ; it is the epoch of your age at present. An 
emotion too vivid, an indiscreet thought, an 
imprudent glance, is quite sufficient to im¬ 
peril the interesting and delicate process by 
which your moral constitution is formed, 
to accelerate the development of the heart, 


32 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and thus give to this most important organ 
a pernicious precocity or a false direction. 

Your mother, anxious and always trembling 
for your welfare, guards it with tender solici¬ 
tude from all the dangers to which it might be 
exposed. But her vigilance cannot equal that of 
your guardian angel, nor the care with which 
he removes you from contact with all that might 
in any way tarnish the purity of your soul, or 
trouble its peace and harmony. It is to you 
that the Holy Ghost addresses these words 
of the Proverbs : With all watchfulness keep 
thy heart, because life issueth out from it.* 

The heart is, therefore, the seat of the moral 
life, and as the source is known by the waters 
that flow from it, so will the moral life par¬ 
take of the character and bear the impress of 
the heart whence it proceeds. This is true of 
youth in general, but more particularly so of 
young ladies. 

* Proverbs iv- 23. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


33 


CHAPTER III. 

THE HEART OF WOMAN : THE NECESSITY OF 
REGULATING IT DURING YOUTH. 

B HE most humble, most chaste, most holy 
of women, Blessed Mary ever Virgin, 
she who is the ornament and glory of her sex 
who, in consequence of her privilege of being 
the mother of God, merited to be elevated so 
high above all creatures, revealed to us the 
existence of a faculty in the soul, unknown to 
the philosophers, undiscovered by the saints, 
unspoken of by the prophets. This faculty is 
more conspicuous in woman than in man, 
for it exercises in her a decisive influence 
which extends over the entire period of her 
life. Hence, God, “ who ordereth all things, 
sweetly,” (Wisdom, viii. 1), desired that its 
existence should be made known to us by a 


34 


SERIOUS HOURS 


woman, and that, too, while she was visiting 
another woman. 

In answer to the salutation of her cousin 
St. Elizabeth, Mary, filled with the Holy 
Ghost, breaks forth into that sublime Canticle, 
called the “ Magnificat: ” “ He hath scattered 

the proud, ” she sings, “ mente cordis sui; ” 
literally, “ in the mind of their heart.” This 
is the faculty of which I speak; that mind , 
that intellect of the heart, if I may so term it, 
which is the hidden recess, the secret chamber 
of the soul, either blessed by the peaceful 
presence of humility, or cursed by the baneful 
restlessness of worldly ambition or pride. 

It is not going too far to say that a woman’s 
mind is in her heart; it is the source both of 
the thoughts which ennoble and elevate, and 
of those which are selfish and worldly; it is 
the key to all the powers of her soul, so that 
he who becomes the possessor of her heart is 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


35 


master of her whole being, and can exercise 
over her a power of fascination which has no 
parallel in nature. 

God who disposes every being for the end 
which He proposed to Himself in creating it 
has established in woman’s heart an abyss 
which no human affection can fill nor exhaust 
when once it has been filled, because He 
desired to submerge her whole being in love, 
and thus to render easy and necessary to her 
the noblest sentiments and the most heroic 
sacrifices. Such is the agent that He wished 
to employ for the culture of charity in society 
and in the family circle, as well as of the 
virtues of tenderness, compassion and devoted¬ 
ness. He desired that in the family the child 
should be borne, so to speak, on woman’s heart 
and man’s intelligence, as on the two arms of 
one and the same being; He desired that in 
society the mind of the one should furnish the 


36 


SERIOUS HOURS 


light to guide in the way, and the love of the 
other should produce that vivifying principle 
which animates and quickens man’s being: 
And, thus, that the moral life of humanity 
should be the result of these two factors. 
God endowed the heart of woman with trea¬ 
sures of tenderness and devotedness, desiring to 
be Himself the supreme object of its devotion. 
To Himself alone has He reserved the power of 
calming its fearful agitation and soothing its 
poignant grief, hence we see it turning to Him 
in its joys and sorrows, like the magnet to the 
pole that attracts it. He has made the heart 
of woman broad and deep, so that its devoted¬ 
ness may suffice for all the exigencies it is 
called upon to meet,, whether in society or in 
the family, yet finding no created object able 
to exhaust it. 

When, forgetting the sublime end for which 
she has been created, woman lives for the world 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


37 


and not for heaven, lavishing her love on crea¬ 
tures instead of giving it to God, her Creator, 
her soul becomes the prey of inexpressible 
anguish and despondency, which admonish her 
of her mistake and induce her to correct it. 

You can easily judge from this of what 
great importance it is to you to keep a vigilant 
watch over your heart and its movements, 
since the heart is, so to speak, the citadel of 
your whole being, and hence when it is cap¬ 
tured all the powers and faculties of your soul 
are forced to surrender. The heart is the agent 
that furnishes woman with the greater part of 
her ideas, and the object of its predilection 
inevitably becomes the only object of all her 
thoughts. This is the artist that furnishes the 
imagination with those images which remain 
substantially the same under forms constantly 
varying, but absorbing the soul to such a 

B 


38 


SERIOUS HOURS 


degree that a person is often tempted to look 
upon their action as the result of obsession. 

It is the heart that governs and shapes the 
will, giving it that flexibility and at the same 
time that constancy so prevalent among the 
greater part of women, leading them, with 
unflinching stubbornness of determination to 
the accomplishment of the end proposed. All 
difficulties vanish that stand between them and 
the object of their heart. This disposition 
renders them potent for good or evil, hence 
the necessity of regulating the heart and of 
never losing control over its movements. 
When their soul is swayed by a pure and 
generous sentiment, and when the natural 
weakness of their sex gives place to an energy 
which few men are capable of displaying, their 
ardor in doing good is truly admirable. God 
alone knows all the treasures of virtue stored 
up within them daily, by charity, maternal 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


39 


love, filial piety, devotedness and compassion, 
but He alone also knows the malicious excess 
to which a sentiment, bad in its nature or in 
its source, may lead them. 

Oh, if while standing between these two 
abysses of good and evil, you could sound their 
depth, and behold the ineffable joy and glory 
that women have secured by the practice of 
virtue, the sorrow, disgust, humiliation and 
shame that evil doings have brought upon 
them (faults which at first sight did not seem 
capable of entailing such fatal consequences) 
horror and admiration should dispute the 
possession of your soul; you would indeed 
tremble on beholding the consequences of 
neglecting your vocation, while you would be 
astonished at the sublime elevation that fide¬ 
lity to grace would secure to you in heaven. 

God desires to accomplish great things 
through your instrumentality, and in order to 


40 


SERIOUS HOURS 


secure your services with greater certainty he 
has placed around you barriers which you 
cannot pass without an effort that does vio¬ 
lence to nature, still necessity makes it a duty 
to break them down, and necessity has no law. 
When the first step is taken nothing can 
impede the will in the execution of your 
designs, be they good or bad. Hence the great 
importance of making your first step in the 
right direction, as it will be the prelude to 
countless others. 

If you wish to possess your own heart and 
insure to yourself a life exempt from trouble 
and remorse, attach it firmly to God; accus¬ 
tom it to always prefer duty to pleasure and 
to propose to itself in all its movements an end 
worthy of your sublime destiny. Eemember 
that God alone can satisfy it—no creature being 
able to give it that peace which it so ardently 
craves. 0, my child, if you knew the gnaw- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


41 


ing desires, the vain hopes, the false joys, 
the troubles, the regrets and bitterness that 
fill the heart in which God does not dwell! 
If your eyes were not screened by the veil of 
candor and simplicity preventing you from 
foreseeing the torments to which that woman’s 
life is exposed, who has not learned in early 
youth to regulate the desires and affections 
of her heart, you would better understand my 
words, and the necessity of laboring ener¬ 
getically and efficiently to direct your own, 
and to check all its irregular movements. 
Learn now, and profit by the experience of 
others. Hearken to the voice of God address¬ 
ing you in these words : “ The flowers have 

appeared in our land, the time of pruning 
is come; the voice of the turtle is heard in 
our land; the vines in flower yield their sweet 
smell. Arise, my love, and come. Catch us 
the little foxes that destroy the vines, for our 


42 


SERIOUS HOURS 


vineyard hath flourished. (Cant. ch. ii. 12, 13, 
15). The foxes of which the sacred writer 
speaks here are those defects which, although 
they appear small, still assail the soul with 
great virulence, and will leave no virtue intact 
unless you hasten to destroy them. 

The time for pruning is the time of youth, 
age truly precious wherein you can still lop off 
useless branches which absorb a portion of the 
sap, depriving the others of that strength which 
they need in order to produce an abundance of 
savory fruit. You should attack not only those 
gross and manifest defects which disfigure the 
soul, but also those imperfections which are 
slight in appearance, but which, if left alone, 
will in time become pernicious inclinations. 
You should even watch over certain natural 
dispositions, which, though good in themselves, 
and even often esteemed above their true merit 
by the world, might easily, on that account, 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


43 


divert the thoughts of the mind and the efforts 
of the will from more important objects ; dispo¬ 
sitions very often dangerous for those who pos¬ 
sess them, because it is easy to abuse them, 
and because they flatter and nourish self-love, 
or the other passions that flesh is heir to. You 
should imitate those intelligent gardeners who 
pay a daily visit to their garden, pruning knife 
in hand, and cut off branches that might exhaust 
or overcharge the tree—not sparing them for 
the beauty- of their foliage or the brightness of 
their flowers. 

If you wish to cultivate your heart and make 
it produce all the fruit and virtue that it is 
capable of producing, suffer nothing useless or 
superfluous to grow therein, choosing what is 
best, measuring your esteem of certain things, 
and your application of certain duties by the 
degree of importance that each merits, giving 
the preference, in your mind and heart, to the 


44 


SERIOUS HOURS 


virtues which bring the soul nearest to God. 
Love those hidden virtues, so modest and 
humble, which are the ornament of your sex— 
those virtues of which God alone is witness, 
which the world ignores,—which it often, in 
fact, despises, because they secure no advantage 
in men’s esteem, receiving their reward only in 
the future world. But this is just the reason 
why God loves them so dearly, and why you 
should prefer them. For if, in general, it 
is dangerous to please the world and useful 
to shun it, this truth is especially applicable 
to woman, who, being confined to a narrower 
sphere, and devoted to more intimate affec¬ 
tions than man, is obliged to seek, at a tender 
age, isolation, tranquillity, repose, and that 
retirement which are truly a shield to her 
virtues. In this way you will do more for the 
real development and culture of your heart 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


45 


than by the acquisition of more agreeable and 
more brilliant qualities. 

Moreover, the same thing will happen for you 
that always happens when efforts are made to 
acquire what is best; when that which is essen¬ 
tial is secured, the accessories will infallibly 
follow, just as the effect follows the cause that 
produces it. By acquiring the virtues that are 
pleasing to God you will receive, in addition, 
those which men esteem; in becoming more 
and more agreeable to God you will become 
more and more pleasing to men, whose good 
sense and sound judgment almost invariably 
triumph over prejudice which an austere but 
modest virtue always removes. This is also 
what the Saviour of the world insinuates by 
these words of the Gospel in which He recom¬ 
mends us to seek first the kingdom of God and 
His justice, promising that all other things shall 
be added thereto. But this addition should not 


46 


SERIOUS HOURS 


be directly sought, nor should it be ardently 
desired; await the will of God who has pro¬ 
mised it to us, provided that we first seek the 
things to which that is accessory. Very often, 
on the contrary, when, through want of due 
reflection, preference is given to secondary and 
inferior things, by neglecting solid and hidden 
virtues for brilliant qualities, neither are ob¬ 
tained. God permits this in order to punish 
this subversion of the moral order and of the 
laws that govern it. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


47 


CHAPTEK IV. 

THE DIGNITY OF WOMAN. 

J^OPE ST. LEO, in one” of his homilies 
Ajd]? on the nativity of our Saviour, says, 
in addressing man : “ 0 man, recognize thy 
dignity!” We might, with all due propriety, 
address these same words to woman, for her 
happiness and virtues depend in a great measure 
on the elevated idea that she has of herself, 
and on the care with which she maintains this 
idea, both in her own mind and in that of others. 
Woe to the woman who, through false mod¬ 
esty, or something still worse, has lost self- 
respect, for she has deprived herself of her most 
powerful safeguard against instability of char¬ 
acter and the seductions of the world. 

Woman has received from God the sublime 


48 


SERIOUS HOURS 


mission of fostering in society the spirit of 
sacrifice and devotedness. Faithful, nay, some¬ 
times perhaps over-zealous, in the discharge of 
these duties, she feels an imperative need of 
sacrificing herself to another who should con¬ 
stitute the complement of her life. As long as 
she has not made this surrender of herself to 
another she is a burden to herself, for she seems 
to find her liberty and happiness in this volun¬ 
tary servitude of the heart, in this constant 
abnegation, in this perpetual sacrifice of her 
whole being. 

This disposition of woman’s heart, which has 
been given her for the good of society and for 
her own happiness, can be easily used to the 
detriment of both; such is necessarily the case 
the moment she sinks in her own estimation, 
so as to account herself a being of little value. 
It is a matter of vital importance to her to have 
a j ust idea of the value of the present she is 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


49 


making when she engages her heart and her fide¬ 
lity. In fact, when a thing is lightly appre¬ 
ciated, we make little account of giving it away 
and less of choosing those to whom we give it. 
Now, if we consider the deplorable facility with 
which a vast number of women obey the caprice 
of their heart or of their imagination, we will 
he led to conclude that their valuation of them¬ 
selves is very low indeed. They seem to lose 
sight of the fact that in giving their heart they 
give the key to all the treasures that enrich 
their soul; they give their will, all their 
thoughts, their whole life. They sometimes 
give more than all this, they give their eternal 
salvation, their conscience, and God Himself, 
putting in His place, by a sort of idolatry, the 
object that claims their heart. 

To prevent this deplorable prodigality of 
themselves, women should spare no pains to 
comprehend thoroughly their dignity, of which 


50 


SERIOUS HOURS 


they can never have too high an appreciation 
or too great an esteem. It would be most 
prejudicial to them to lower in their own mind 
their just value by a false humility. 

The most humble of all women is, at the 
same time, she who had the best knowledge of 
her dignity. And her humility, which was 
never equaled by that of any other woman, did 
not hinder her from seeing the great things that 
God had operated in her, as she herself pro¬ 
claims in that sublime canticle which is the 
“ Magna Charta” of the rights, the prerogatives 
and the greatness of woman. 

The two most beautiful and most elevated 
things in all creation are the intelligence of 
man and the heart of woman. They are the 
special objects of God’s complacency. He 
seems to be absorbed in the work of their 
education; to this end he seems to have con- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


51 


verged all the miracles wrought by His divine 
Son, all the mysteries of Jesus Christ. 

To impart to man a knowledge of truth and 
a love of virtue was the end that God proposed 
to Himself in the creation of the world. But 
the order which he had established was ini- 
quitously subverted, and this subversion has 
shaken society to its very foundation, leading 
man’s intelligence to conceive a hatred for truth 
and to become the slave of error; turning away 
the heart of woman from what is truly good 
and great to pander to false and transitory 
goods, which sully without contenting it. 

The heart of woman may be said to be the 
source from which flows all the good or evil 
that consoles or afflicts mankind. As the city 
and state receive their form and character from 
the family, so the family is modelled after the 
type of the mother’s heart, since upon her de¬ 
volves the culture of the infant mind, that all- 


52 


SERIOUS HOURS 


important education upon which depends man’s 
weal or woe, both for time and eternity. Hence 
it is that, while writing this little work, and 
considering that many to whom it is addressed 
will read its pages, namely those who are des¬ 
tined to be one day heads of families, charged 
with the education of several children, who in 
turn will found numerous families to act a more 
or less important part in the great movement 
by which the plan of divine Providence is exe¬ 
cuted throughout ages, I feel a kind of profound 
respect, bordering on reverential awe, that 
engages me to pray God to inspire me with 
thoughts equal to the sublimity of my subject. 

Whoever you may be that read and meditate 
this little book, I honor and venerate the dior_ 
nity of your vocation; I regard you as an august 
and sacred being. I admire the great designs 
that G-od has over you; I pray Him to have you 
participate in the sovereign esteem and respect 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


53 


with which your condition inspires me. You 
are as yet free from all engagements, in the 
bloom of youth, adorned with the treasures 
of innocence and candor, standing like a queen 
upon the threshold of the future which opens 
before you like a spacious temple. The past 
is immaculate and free from the sting of 
remorse; with a vigorous mind and will you 
behold the future’s perspective without anxiety 
or dismay,—rich in pious souvenirs, saintly 
hopes, heavenly thoughts and merits acquired by 
prayer and the practice of virtue, ignorant of vice 
and its bitter consequences, save by the pictures 
that have been painted in order to inspire you 
with horror for it; your liberty is such that 
every Christian soul envies your happy state. 
You possess a power—I would almost say, a 
majesty—that no one can help admiring and 
revering. As there is no one freer than he 
who has never been the slave of sin, so there is 


54 


SERIOUS HOURS 


no man stronger than he who has never suc¬ 
cumbed to the allurements of pleasure. The 
woof of your life is there spread out before you 
intact and flexible, you can dispose and weave 
it as you please; you will now find none of 
those knotty or broken threads which, in after 
life, must sometimes be met with. 

You are now at the period of life at which 
all the roads of life meet. You can choose the 
one that pleases you most, and enter on the 
good way with all that generous ardor so natu¬ 
ral to youth. But, whatever you do, whatever 
the choice you may make, you will occasion 
the future weal or woe of many, perhaps for 
many generations. Whether spouse of Jesus 
Christ or of man, whether mother of a family 
or of the poor, whether a cloistered nun or a 
celebate in the world, you will neither save nor 
lose your soul alone; the effects of your virtues 
or vices shall be reproduced, long after your 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


55 


departure from the scene of life, in the lives of 
beings yet unborn, in favor of whom divine 
Providence implores your compassion. What 
a solemn moment! What sublime power! 
Have you given it serious thought ? 

Transport yourself, in thought, to the house 
of Nazareth, recall to mind the day on which 
Gabriel proposed to your Queen to become the 
mother of God, asking her consent to the Incar¬ 
nation, by which was to be accomplished the 
salvation of the world. The angel’s words 
astonished Mary’s humility so far as to make 
her recoil before such a prodigious elevation, 
and, to obtain her consent, it was necessary to 
assure her that the Holy Ghost Himself would 
accomplish in her this prodigy. Indeed, it was 
a most memorable moment in the world’s his¬ 
tory,—a moment wherein the salvation of the 
entire human race hung upon the word of a 
virgin’s lips. 


56 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Now, in your present condition, at this period 
of your life, you bear a certain resemblance to 
the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth, on the day of 
the Annunciation. A glorious destiny is also 
announced to you ; to you also is promised a 
saintly posterity, if you give your consent and 
concurrence to the Holy Ghost, with docility 
to the operation of His grace. Be not astonished 
at so great an honor. The choice that you are 
going to make, the course that you are going 
to adopt, will determine and fix the fate of a 
family, of a generation,—of many generations 
perhaps, for God alone can tell how far the 
influence of your virtues or the result of your 
faults may extend. 

If you have no regard for your own salvation 
or glory, oh, at least have pity for those whom 
the hand of God will place under your care, to 
he modeled by your instructions and example. 
Have compassion on them and on those who, 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


57 


succeeding them, must inherit your virtues or 
vices. Oh! how pleasing to God and respected 
of men is the young lady who, piously impressed 
with the greatness of her vocation, prepares for 
the future in a Christian manner, and resolves 
courageously to embrace and faithfully to dis¬ 
charge all its duties. 

Like Mary, the model and glory of your sex, 
you also, but in a spiritual manner, are carry¬ 
ing Jesus Christ within you ; and He, by the 
operation of the Holy Ghost, is leaving the 
impress of His virtues in your soul, that one 
day you may give Him birth spiritually, pro¬ 
ducing Him externally by a pure and Christian 
life. Like her you should be ready to accom¬ 
plish the will of God in your own regard, saying, 
as she did, with sentiments of obedience and 
profound humility : “ Behold the handmaid of 
the Lord , be it done unto me according to Thy 
word; ” abandoning your soul with perfect 


58 


SERIOUS HOURS 


docility to the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
following Him wherever He desires to lead you. 
Let your soul glorify God, and rejoice in Him 
on account of the great things He has done in 
you, remembering that His mercy extends from 
generation to generation, in favor of those who 
fear him, and that holy families, fearing God, 
are formed by the lessons and examples of 
virtuous, God-fearing women. He reduces to 
naught those who confide in their own power 
and strength, while He sustains and exalts the 
humble. He freely shares His treasures with 
those who desire them, and reduces to indigence 
those who glory in their own abundance. 

Let this beautiful canticle dwell in your 
heart and be the prayer of your lips : in this 
canticle, composed by the Mother of God, the 
honor and glory of your sex, or rather by the 
Holy Ghost Himself, who inspired her, He 
has inscribed all the rights and glories of 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


59 


women, by celebrating in it the power of her 
feebleness, the greatness of her humility and of 
all those modest virtues which so well become 
your condition. 

A Christian woman who would never lose 
sight of what she is, of her worth, of her moral 
capabilities and of her sacred duties, will find 
in the frequent meditation of this sublime 
canticle considerations suggestive of thoughts 
and sentiments corresponding to God’s designs 
over her. She should nourish her soul with 
the vivifying substance of the words it con¬ 
tains, and look therein for light to dispel 
her doubts, and for consolation in her troubles. 
In them she will also find a cheering hope in 
her languor, a powerful prayer in temptation, 
an acceptable act of thanksgiving, and a hymn 
of joy and triumph in her victories. 


60 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER V. 

EVE AND MARY. 

^Ts^ILATE, on presenting to the Jews, Jesus 
crowned with thorns, and clothed in a 
purple garment, said: “ Behold the Man!” 
Jesus frequently calls Himself the Son of man 
in the Gospel, that is, the Man par excellence , 
the Man who is the model and type of all others. 
To women, we can also say of Mary : “ Behold 
the woman!” the honor, glory, joy, crown, 
type and model of your sex. Such is the 
manner in which Jesus presented her from 
the cross on Calvary, when He said to her, 
a few moments before expiring : “ Woman, 
behold thy Son! ” 

It is, indeed, remarkable that the Saviour of 
the world, when addressing Mary in public, did 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


61 


not call her mother, but woman, as if, by that, 
He would declare to us that she is the model 
of all other women. It is as if He said to us : 
Behold THE woman; and, although she was 
His mother—principal title of her glory—never¬ 
theless she is woman before all. She merited 
to become the most glorious of all mothers only 
because she had been the purest and holiest of 
all women. You should therefore have your 
eyes constantly fixed upon Mary, as a servant 
who watches her mistress in order to observe 
and obey her commands. If you can see your¬ 
self in Mary, you will entertain an exalted idea 
of the dignity of your sex; for it is in her and 
by her that you are great; it is to her you owe 
the honor and respect that the world pays the 
woman who knows how to respect and appre¬ 
ciate herself according to her just value. If you 
would understand all that you owe to Mary in 
this regard you need but consider what was 


62 


SERIOUS HOURS 


the social condition of woman in society before 
the birth of Christ, and what her condi¬ 
tion is to-day among people on whom the 
light of the Gospel has not yet shone. You 
are now too young to appeal to your own expe¬ 
rience, but, according as you advance in life, 
observing closely what passes around you, you 
will learn—tfcid God grant that it may not be 
at your own expense—what an immense differ¬ 
ence there is with regard to the esteem in 
which woman is held between those who adore 
God as the Son of Mary, and those who regard 
her as common with other women. 

Among men of social standing, whose habits, 
condition and character are so different, you can 
easily discern those whose faith discloses to 
them a reflection of the glory of Mary in you, 
from those who behold in you simply a daughter 
of Eve. Their conversation, deportment and 
looks, everything in them, will serve you as an 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


63 


index to this discernment. It is very difficult 
for man to disguise his real sentiments—dissi¬ 
mulation costs nature too dearly—hut there are 
two circumstances wherein his moral character 
betrays itself in a striking manner, namely, 
in the presence of God, and in the presence of 
woman. It is neither permitted nor possible 
to a man truly religious and chaste to be bold 
or trivial in presence of either. 

The woman illuminated by the sweet reflec¬ 
tions of the glories of Mary, and imitating 
her virtues according to her state of life, 
enjoys the singular privilege of commanding 
the deferential respect of men of the most 
decided character. In her presence vice is 
silent, audacity is confounded, virtue, innocence 
and candor are at ease. The holy emanations 
of her heart purify the moral atmosphere 
around her, imparting to it a sweet and charm- 


64 


SERIOUS HOURS 


ing serenity, converting the place in which she 
appears into a kind of sanctuary. 

By a contrary effect, resulting from a want 
of self-respect, woman becomes an easy prey 
to men of vain hearts and frivolous minds, 
who, not thinking themselves more obliged to 
respect her than she respects herself, without 
any reserve, give expression to the vanity of 
their hearts and thoughts. Everywhere and 
always ignorance or contempt of the Christian 
religion has begot contempt for woman, or dis¬ 
regard for her sacred rights and exalted dignity. 
Everywhere and always, irreligion has produced 
libertinism, the immediate and necessary effect 
of which is a depreciation of woman ; and in 
those countries where the habits and institu¬ 
tions of the people have been deprived of the 
precious culture of Christianity, woman’s con¬ 
dition is so abject that it differs in nothing from 
that of the brute, save that in her the sacred 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


65 


rights established by divine Providence are most 
shamefully violated. 

That woman is worthy of glory or ignominy 
is the logical consequence of her being regarded 
as a daughter either of Eve or of Mary. In 
the one she is the poisoned source whence sin 
with all the evils that attend it flowed into the 
world; in the other she is the blessed source 
whence the Salvation of the world has issued 
forth. And, what she has been once for the 
entire human race in the garden of Eden and at 
Nazareth, she is yet every day for a people, a 
city, a family, or for each man in particular, 
according to the elevation of her position in 
society, and the extent of her influence. 

The greater part of Christian nations owe to 
the prayers and examples of some holy woman, 
some pious queen, for instance, the gifts of 
Christianity and civilization—in this regard 
Prance has been, among all nations, singularly 


66 


SERIOUS HOURS 


fortunate, and the name of Clotilda shall for¬ 
ever be revered in the pages of its history; 
while on the other hand, woman has often been 
instrumental in depriving the church of a king¬ 
dom, and in plunging into darkness and error a 
long succession of generations. For instances 
of this we have only to recall the names of 
Anne Boleyn and her cruel daughter, queen 
Elizabeth. 

Countless numbers are indebted to woman 
for a knowledge of the truth, or the misfortune 
of forsaking it. Is there one who, in recalling 
the memories of the past, does not either bless 
or curse a woman, seeing in her an instrument 
of God’s mercy, or of the seduction of Satan ? 
Is there one who has not realized in that woman 
either a daughter of Eve or of the Blessed 
Virgin—an Eden or a Nazareth ? Behold the 
two poles between which the history of peoples 
and the life of each man in particular continu- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


67 


ally oscillate. Eve and Mary! these are two 
guiding stars, either of which man must follow; 
the light of the one is deceitful and treacherous, 
while that of the other is true and beneficent; 
the one leads humanity along the paths of 
righteousness, while the other lures to the 
commission of sin. Hence it is that the church 
has given Mary those beautiful names, so signi¬ 
ficantly true : “ Morning Star ! ” “ Star of the 
Sea ! ” 

This world is, indeed, like a stormy sea, in 
which are rocks and shoals, upon which man 
runs the risk of being wrecked unless he keeps 
his eyes steadfastly fixed upon this star whose 
brightness no storm can dim, and which, at the 
most perilous moment, shines with greater bril¬ 
liancy, as the cheering sign of grace, hope and 
happiness. It is by turning our eyes toward 
Mary with her divine Son in her arms, present¬ 
ing Him to us as our Saviour, that our troubled 


68 


SERIOUS HOURS 


souls find the polar star which will quiet all 
their movements, and tranquilize the fluttering 
beatings of our troubled hearts. But, woe to 
us if, instead of fixing our attention upon Mary, 
virgin mother of God, we turn to Eve, infected 
with the contagion of the serpent, and offering 
to our hearts the doleful fruit of temptation 
and sin! 

At the entrance to every path that leads to 
heaven or to the abyss of hell you will find a 
woman—the image of Mary, at the former, the 
image of Eve at the latter. It almost invariably 
happens that it is woman who deals out to 
mankind sin and death like Eve, or life, redemp¬ 
tion and salvation like Mary. If you meet 
with one of these privileged men, chosen by 
God to be an instrument of His mercy, inti¬ 
mately associated with Jesus in the work of the 
salvation of His people, you may rest assured 
that this man owes to a woman, to a mother or a 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


69 


sister, the development of the great qualities 
which distinguish him. While, on the contrary, 
if you see one of those men tainted by the curse 
of some hereditary vice, very often more perni¬ 
cious than original sin in its effects, you will 
discover that its source is the lesson or examples 
of a woman, whose poisoned influence shall 
oppress generations, just as that of Eve has 
oppressed the human race. Once again, I 
repeat it, that, as the corrupt and incredulous 
generation is the offspring of mothers modeled 
after Eve, so the holy and faithful generation 
traces its origin to mothers modeled after 
Mary. 

You must choose between these two models, 
and on your choice will depend not only your 
own happiness and salvation, but also that of 
many yet unborn, whom God will confide to 
your care, and who will be dear to your heart. 
There remains no alternative ; you will be either 


70 


SERIOUS HOURS 


a cause of temptation and sin, or an instrument 
of grace and benediction for those who will live 
with you. You will either offer them the for¬ 
bidden fruit like your mother Eve, or you will 
give spiritual birth to the Word of Life for them. 
As one of the greatest torments of the repro¬ 
bate woman in hell will be to see the woful 
misery into which she has brought those whom 
she had loved so dearly upon earth, and to hear 
the maledictions and reproaches which they 
shall hurl against her, so, also, one of the 
greatest joys of the faithful woman in heaven, 
will be to see those whom she sanctified by 
word and example now grouped around her, 
crowning her with a diadem of glory as a mark 
of everlasting gratitude. 

Would you deprive your soul of this saintly 
joy, and condemn it to suffer the punishment 
reserved for those women who will be the cause 
of the ruin and eternal perdition of many ? 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


71 


Divine justice shall vindicate itself, even in 
this life, by making your heart a most cruel 
torment to itself, that you may expiate, in 
agonizing torture your infidelity to grace. The 
cause of your sin shall be the very means of 
your punishment. God will employ, to avenge 
His outraged honor and His violated laws, those 
whom you have turned away from Him, and 
who, recognizing in you the cause of their evils, 
will end, perhaps, by hating you, or, what is 
still worse, by despising you. Oh, may it 
never be your sad fate to feel the withering 
contempt of those who have been led away 
from God by your bad or undue influence, that 
is, by loving them for yourself and not for God 
and themselves ! Do not, I pray you, store up 
such bitterness for your old age, such anguish 
for your death-bed, since, instead of bitter 
regrets, you can experience a sweet joy, which 
is a foretaste of never-ending happiness, a spe- 


72 


SERIOUS HOURS 


cial consolation for God’s faithful friends at 
that last and dreadful moment when the soul 
stands trembling on the threshold of eternity ; 
may it he your envied privilege to leave after 
you upon earth souls edified by your example, 
and grateful for the good you have done them. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


73 


CHAPTER VI. 


EYE AND MARY CONTINUED. 

YlT-HE history of the fall of man, caused 
hy Eve, and of his restoration, brought 
about by Mary, is a subject of grave consider¬ 
ation for women of serious minds, for women 
who have at heart the preservation of the 
dignity and vocation of their sex. By a close 
consideration of these two models, which 
furnish the solution to so many enigmas, 
explaining so many truths and throwing so 
much light upon the most obscure and the 
most profound questions, they will learn by a 
short and easy method what they should do, 
and what they should avoid; they will learn 
how sin has been propagated, the reason why 

it still exists; they will learn how justice and 
c 


74 


SERIOUS HOURS 


virtue flourish upon earth, how men turn 
away from God, and how they return to Him. 
It was with reason that God allowed sin and 
justice to attain us through the agency of 
woman, and that her free consent was a neces¬ 
sary condition for both the ruin and the 
restoration of the human race. 

It is therefore an interesting and useful 
study to consider in their detail and most 
minute circumstances the acts (so extremely 
opposed) of these two women, for one of them, 
according to the beautiful expression of the 
Church, has restored to us by her divine Son 
what the other had deprived us of by her 
disobedience. There is in these two facts, so 
different in their nature and results, a wonder¬ 
ful gradation which points out to us the fatal 
declivity by which the human heart insensi¬ 
bly sinks to the lowest abyss of evil, or rises 
to the highest degree of virtue and glory. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


75 


In the sin of Eve the first degree was a 
certain intemperance of language, which led 
her to reply to the insidious questions of the 
devil; in appearance this forgetfulness was 
very slight. To answer a question, give an 
explanation requested of you, clear up a doubt, 
render an account of a precept of the Lord, 
seem at first sight something natural and 
permitted. It is quite easy to be deceived in 
this matter. We readily convince ourselves 
that we are actuated by laudable motives in 
such like conversations—motives for glory- 
fying God and justifying His providence; 
but we should be extremely cautious: 
language is something august and sacred, for 
it is the tie that unites the soul to God, and 
man to his fellow-men,—it is the mysterious 
knot of all societies, divine and human. 

Language establishes between those who 
speak a more intimate relation than they are 


76 


SERIOUS HOURS 


generally aware of. Few persons realize the 
prodigious transfusion of thoughts, sentiments, 
influence and life that arise from conversation. 
Have you clearly understood this truth in its 
full force ? Language establishes between 
souls a very close and mysterious union, and 
this is why discretion, prudence and reserve 
are so necessary in regulating its use. This 
is why Jesus Christ warns us in the Gospel, 
that we shall render an account of every idle 
word , if indeed we may call idle a thing that 
entails such frightful consequences or fatal 
results. 

If this reserve is necessary for all it is more 
especially so for woman, who, being more 
communicative than man, experiences a greater 
necessity to speak—to express herself more 
freely, and in terms more explicit. If women 
were sincere and impartial judges of them¬ 
selves they for the most part would not fail to 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


77 


recognize that nearly all their faults spring 
from a useless word—an imprudent answer, or 
an indiscreet question. 

The word why is indeed very short, hut in 
its insidious brevity it comprises a multitude 
of things which are all the more dangerous 
because they are unforeseen, being concealed 
in a perfidious and cloudy vagueness. Why ? 
This word is the beginning of the greater part of 
those temptations against frailty. The enemy, 
seeking our destruction, almost invariably 
announces his presence by this captious ques¬ 
tion, either by the mouth of another or by our 
own mind, in order to fill the heart with doubt 
and trouble. Why take such and such 
precautions ? Why avoid such a place, such 
a person, such company? Why renounce 
such and such amusements ? Why neglect or 
cast off that ornament ? Why suffer this or 
that privation ? Why abstain from this action, 


78 


SERIOUS HOURS 


which is not bad in itself ? Why turn away 
the ear from those praises, those compliments, 
dictated by usage or etiquette, to keep up that 
intercourse without which society would be 
impossible? Why not read this book, this 
novel? Why not assist at this play which 
the most rigorous moralist would not condemn ; 
and which has for its object to inspire horror 
for vice, by placing before our eyes its doleful 
consequences true to reality ? Why restrain 
to inaction the finest faculties of the soul, and 
refuse them the aliment they so ardently 
crave ? Why deprive our heart and imagina¬ 
tion of the pleasures which the beautiful 
inspires ? Why not form at an early age a 
taste for worldly beauty, and be possessed of 
all the resources and advantages that it affords 
us during life ? Why be mistrustful of the 
mind and heart, at an age when they still 
possess all their simplicity and freshness, 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


79 


through vain fear which renders after-life 
almost intolerable ? Why not be more 
confiding in the heart’s fidelity and in the 
goodness of God, who has not condemned man 
to constant privations ?—Such is the language 
that the enemy of our eternal salvation and 
happiness addresses us every day with such 
perfidious adroitness; and who, spite of the 
experience of those whom he has already 
deceived, deceives us every day. 

This language is the more perfidious for being 
apparently truthful and natural. When there 
is question of corrupting a heart that is yet 
virtuous, vice conceals itself under the mantle 
of virtue, as otherwise its efforts would be 
powerless. Now, we can safely say that its 
venom has already tainted the young lady’s 
heart, when, through inattention and want of 
vigilance, she has suffered doubt to brood over 
any of those obligations which are so delicate and 


80 


SERIOUS HOURS 


difficult to determine, and, nevertheless, most 
grave and important, since they entail, when 
neglected, the most disastrous results. Firmness 
of mind, assurance in her convictions, a clear 
and strong consciousness of duty, are to her 
indispensable qualifications ; and when she 
suffers this tenor of conduct to be interfered 
with by imprudently replying, like Eve, to a 
captious question, the peace and innocence of 
her heart are certainly threatened. 

The young girl’s innocence is something that 
is very imperfectly known; the delicate and 
almost imperceptible shades that reflect its 
beauty and which render it delightful to God 
and His angels, escape the general notice of 
mankind. It is composed of a chaste ignorance 
of mind, a great simplicity of heart, and a 
constant and unwavering firmness of will. 
How, what merits our greatest attention is the 
fact that this firmness of will begins to give way 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


81 


in woman the moment she removes, even by a 
slight doubt, this precious veil of ignorance 
which protects her virtue, or when, by an 
indiscreet question, or an imprudent answer, 
she exposes the simplicity of her heart. 

The virtues which adorn the heart of a young 
lady are concealed from her own knowledge. 
God has so enveloped her in mystery that He 
alone understands her. None other save the 
penetrating eye of God should look into the 
sanctuary of her heart. None other than His 
light should shine in this holy and chaste obscu¬ 
rity, and this is why humility, of which we have 
found so perfect a model in Mary, should be the 
necessary shield and guarantee of a young 
lady’s innocence. She ought not to have the 
slightest misgivings relative to the value of 
the treasure she possesses or the loss she would 
sustain in losing it. 

The presence of an angel sufficed to trouble 


82 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Mary. Oh, young ladies should meditate well 
and frequently on the conduct that Mary 
observed in this interview, and imitate her ex¬ 
ample ! She did not answer the Angel’s words, 
but she observed an humble and modest silence. 
Not so with Eve who, without reflection, 
answered the devil’s question, and by this first 
reply began a conversation the issue of which 
has proved so disastrous to the whole human 
race. Learn from this two-fold example, and 
from the effects so different which have resulted 
from both, how much you should fear Eve’s 
curiosity in yourself, and with what care and 
assiduity you should labor to imitate the reserve 
and silence of Mary. 

Curiosity is a most dangerous rock for a 
young lady,—this is the rock upon which a 
countless number of your sex and age have 
been wrecked. The moment that you pander 
to the desire of knowing everything, you 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


83 


immediately enter on a most dangerous way, 
the issue of which is at least precarious. It 
was for having satisfied this desire that 
Eve opened the door to all the calamities 
that afflict and will afflict mankind till the end 
of time. And, since then, it has caused the 
ruin of a countless number of women. 

Intrench, so to speak, your mind in the 
citadel of your own heart. Let it repose in 
the holy obscurity of an humble and docile 
faith, and you will learn more useful things in 
this way than you could ever learn even from 
the best books and the most eloquent instruc¬ 
tions. Faith and prayer should be the daily 
food of your soul. Faith, with its imperfect 
yet celestial light, will meet all the legitimate 
wants of your mind; and prayer, with its 
divine unction, will embalm your soul. 

Often turn your eyes toward heaven, 
and earth will soon lose all its attractions. 


84 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Converse frequently with God and you will 
find it easier to dispense with the intercourse 
of men; keep your mind at a remote distance 
from all worldly knowledge, and the inno¬ 
cence of your heart will enjoy sweet repose. 
Seek not to anticipate by an indiscreet precipi¬ 
tancy the time when the realities of life shall 
open out to your view. Perhaps, more than 
once you will regret the happiness which you 
now enjoy, and which is due both to your 
knowledge and ignorance of things. 

In reality, you possess by faith the same 
knowledge that the blessed have in heaven, 
that knowledge which has been the object of 
the study, research and love of the most 
renowned minds and of the most perfect souls 
in this world. Faith, elevating you above 
yourself and all earthly things, leads you to 
regions to which the most distinguished 
genius, joined to the most profound and 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


85 


persevering study, can never approach. Faith 
makes you in a certain way the sister of 
angels and of men,—of men who have been 
the most remarkable on earth for their 
excellent qualities of head and heart. Faith 
associates you with the glorious choirs of 
heaven, and, when truly lively and active, will 
bring you unalloyed felicity and ineffable joy. 

Why should you envy those women, who, 
for being older than you, have gained by 
experience a knowledge of things that you 
should still ignore ? Why seek to compare 
their knowledge with that which you possess ? 
The knowledge that you have obtained by 
faith has cost your mind no effort—not a 
single regret to your heart, no remorse to your 
conscience. Every step that you make in this 
illuminated way recalls to your mind a sweet 
and precious souvenir, the pure reflections of 
which will be the only light that will dispel 
the gloom of the trials and anguish of life. 


86 


SERIOUS HOURS 


It shall be very different with regard to what 
you must learn in time to come. Experience 
is a severe teacher, whose lessons are dearly 
bought; this is clearly and forcibly expressed 
by the Holy Ghost saying: “ He that adds 
something to the knowledge already acquired, 
adds at the same time new pains to those he 
already suffers.” 

So far you have learned the one thing ne¬ 
cessary to man, and which meets all his wants : 
you have learned how to please God, to love and 
serve Him by the observance of His command¬ 
ments, and fidelity to his inspirations, acknow¬ 
ledging and honoring His authority and power 
over you in your parents, who are, in your 
regard, His representatives. So that at present 
duty possessing pleasing attractions offers none 
of those difficulties which, at a later period 
of life, will render it oftentimes painful. 
Your virtues, protected by that reserve which 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


87 


the world itself has imposed upon youth, 
guarded by the vigilance of a tender and care¬ 
ful mother, aided by her examples, encouraged 
by her exhortations and love, tranquilly grow 
up in the modest sanctuary of the family, 
without the remotest idea of the trials they 
must one day meet with. 

To learn what pertains to faith and salvation, 
good will suffices. We are always sure to 
succeed in pleasing God when we are sincerely 
desirous to serve Him; in this regard we can 
never anticipate Him. Not so with the science 
which teaches how to please men and secure 
their good will or favor, to enter into their 
views, conform to their laws and customs. No 
matter how great our desire may be to suc¬ 
ceed, we are never sure of success, and very 
often the efforts made to secure it remove us 
farther from the desired end. Consequently, 
very often the surest means of securing the 


88 


SERIOUS HOURS 


esteem of the world is to despise it, and 
withdraw from its tyranny. If you fail to 
disengage yourself from it, and if you wish to 
servilely adhere to its maxims, you will often 
experience that they are severe and hard ; and 
you will reproach yourself more than once for 
having desired in your youth to taste of 
those fruits, externally so beautiful but inter¬ 
nally so bitter. 

Hence, moderation of the mind’s curiosity 
is necessary, and in order to satisfy its activity 
apply it to those things that can be of interest 
to your conscience and salvation, to the know¬ 
ledge and study of those sublime truths which, 
while enlightening your intelligence, will elevate 
your heart and strengthen your will. The 
knowledge that you will acquire in this way 
will serve you for the rest of your life, much 
more than all the profane and useless books 
that you can read. Accustom your mind to the 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


89 


love and search of serious things; this will 
prove to be of invaluable utility to you. 

There is little consistency in frivolous things, 
and those, who have fed their souls upon them 
during youth, find themselves void and aban¬ 
doned when they arrive at the age when 
woman can please only by interesting the mind 
and heart by solid charms and tried virtue. 
This is the age which you should constantly 
keep before your mind, because it is the one 
that lasts the longest, and which disposes us 
proximately for that awful moment in which 
our fate will be decided forever. Endeavor to 
become at an early age what you should be 
during the greater part of your life, and what 
you would desire to have been at the hour of 
death. 


90 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE WORLD. 

SPHE world is like some objects which, 
iHi when seen from afar, deceive the eyes 
and allure the imagination; but on approaching 
or touching them their charms vanish. It is 
like those carcasses that retain the form of a 
human body as long as they are buried in the 
obscurity of the tomb, but which, on being 
exposed to the air, are immediately reduced to 
dust. Those who are separated from it without 
having ever known it are exposed to be deceived 
by its perfidious allurements; and those who, 
in order to know it, with a view of despising 
it, desire to mingle in its feasts and pleasures, 
run a greater danger of falling a victim 
to the seductions and corruption of its charms. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


91 


—How, then, shall you secure the advantage 
and escape the danger ? 

By shunning the world, you secure your 
heart and conscience against its seductions ; 
but this evasion, leaving you to consider it 
from a remote standpoint exposes your mind 
to prejudices favorable to it, and which, 
later, might become for you the source of 
many errors and of many faults. How shall 
you surmount this twofold difficulty ? On 
the one hand you cannot mingle with the 
world without danger, and on the other 
hand it will not do for you to ignore its dangers 
which must be known in order to De avoided. 
This dilemma would he of no consequence 
to a frivolous and unreflecting soul, or 
to a vain and presumptuous mind, which, 
confiding in its own powers, believes that it 
has a good knowledge only of what it sees 
and experiences; and counts for naught the 


92 


SERIOUS HOURS 


teachings of faith and the experience of those 
who have gone before. 

Let not this be your case, but, listening 
with an humble and docile heart to the teach¬ 
ings of faith, reason and experience, learn to 
know the world and its dangers while your age 
and condition still shield you from its seduc¬ 
tions. Of all the means by which divine 
Providence enlightens our minds here below, 
divine faith, as you are aware, is the purest } 
the brightest and the most reliable,—not only 
because it comes from God, but because it is 
presented to us by an authority which He has 
established, and which, by His special assist¬ 
ance, He preserves from all error. 

Sacred Scripture, interpreted and explained 
to you by this authority is, therefore, the great 
source to which you must have recourse for 
the knowledge of the things you should know. 
Now you will find that there is hardly a single 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


93 


page of those sacred writings in which there is 
not a malediction pronounced against the world, 
and a warning for you to avoid its siren charms. 
You will find in the gospel according to St. John 
its true character described by Jesus Christ 
Himself, who, being the Incarnate Wisdom, 
could not have any other than the most perfect 
idea of things according to their just value. 

In the first place, it is certain, according to 
this Apostle, that when the Eternal Word came 
into the world it knew Him not; when Jesus 
wished to make the Jews feel the confusion of 
their own blindness, and see the reason of their 
opposition to His doctrine, He said : You are 
from beneath, I am from above, you are of 
this world, I am not of this world, therefore, I 
say to you that you shall die in your sins. 
(John viii. 23, 24.) Could there be anything 
more explicit in condemnation of the world ? 
It has its origin and the throne of its power in 


94 


SERIOUS HOURS 


the lower regions of the earth, while the king¬ 
dom of God resides in the sublime abode of 
the human heart. 

When He promised His disciples that He 
would send them the Spirit of Truth, to console 
them, He gave as the distinctive mark by 
which they would know the Holy Spirit, that 
the world could not receive Him because it 
has no knowledge of Him. Hence the oppo¬ 
sition that exists between the world and the 
spirit of the New Law is so great that any 
compromise is impossible. The world is abso¬ 
lutely incompetent to receive or understand 
the spirit of Jesus Christ. Another fact will 
render this manifest opposition still more 
palpable. When Jesus addressed His eternal 
Father that beautiful prayer preceding His 
agony and passion, He excluded the world 
by a positive act of His will, in order to give 
all to understand that the world could never 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


95 


have any share with Him. “ I 'pray not 
for the world but for them whom thou hast 
given me. The world hath hated them 
because they are not of the world as I also 
am not of the world!' (John xvii. 9, 14.) 

St. Paul interprets these words in that 
energetic style so characteristic of his writings, 
when he says to the Corinthians that “ we have 
not received the spirit of this world whose 
wisdom is folly before God.” Now shall you 
adopt as the rule of your conduct and judgment 
a wisdom which God has not only reproved, 
but even branded with the stigma of folly ? 
According to the same Apostle the world proves 
by its own words that its knowledge is stupi¬ 
dity, since it can see nothing but folly in the 
cross. The maxims, ideas, judgments, conduct 
and habits of the world and those of the flock 
that Jesus came to save are so contradictory, 
their language is so different, that the wise of 


96 


SERIOUS HOURS 


the one are fools with the other; and the things 
regarded as the most sublime by the former 
are to the latter preposterous absurdities. The 
reason is simply because the one has its origin, 
light and end in heaven, while the other draws 
them from the earth. 

Now, if, in order to verify these words of 
the Sacred Scriptures, you take a view of the 
doctrine of the world and of that of Jesus 
Christ, and compare them, you will not find a 
single point in the one that is not in direct 
contradiction to the other; so that, by the 
Gospel, you are enabled to discover the maxims 
of the world, and vice versa. You may rest 
assured that what is recommended and sought 
for by the one is censured and despised by the 
other. St. Paul, speaking to the Galatians, says; 
that “ if he was still pleasing to men he would 
not be the servant of Jesus Christ.” 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


97 


If this be the case, you will say, why remain 
in the world ? Is it not every one’s duty to 
leave it as soon as possible and abandon it 
to its own corruption ? Let the words of our 
divine Lord answer : “ I do not pray you to 
remove them from the world , but I pray you 
to preserve them from evil.” Our peace of 
conscience in this life, and the joys of heaven 
hereafter require separation from the world and 
opposition to its maxims. But this separation 
is one of mind and heart, which consists in a 
manner of thinking, judging and acting entirely 
opposed to that of the world. Man ceases to 
belong to the world the moment he has ceased 
to make it the arbitrator of his conduct and 
judgment, and when he has freed himself from 
its prejudices, caprices and tyranny. Behold 
what religion requires of you, and what alone 
will insure you happiness in this life and in 
the next. 


98 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Now, what is this world from which we 
must separate in order to lead a Christian life ? 
In any society, that we wish to study with a view 
to obtain a knowledge of its nature and objects, 
we may consider either the laws by which it is 
governed, or the body of men who compose it 
and who are governed by these laws. 

Considered from the first point of view, the 
world consists in its own maxims, laws, customs 
and judgments, which are in opposition to the 
letter and spirit of the Gospel; and which tend 
to withdraw the soul from the love of spiritual 
things, or at least to create in her a dislike for 
them. 

Considered from the second point of view, 
the world comprises a mass of men who profess 
its maxims, adopt its usages, obey its laws, and 
yield to its judgments. 

The world thus considered entails a two¬ 
fold obligation for you, one of which can 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


99 


never admit of any exception or dispen¬ 
sation, while the observance of the other 
must be always regulated by prudence and 
charity. Indeed the world, considered in 
its maxims, should be for you an object of 
constant aversion and contempt, because it 
is the arch enemy of Jesus Christ and of 
the spirit that He communicates to His 
true disciples. This is the world that you 
renounced on the day of your baptism; and 
the solemn engagement that you then made 
was the first and most important of all those 
that you have made, or will make, during life. 

But, while it is never permitted you to 
adopt the maxims of the world, charity, pru¬ 
dence, and the consideration due to your posi¬ 
tion, age and family, will not allow you to 
effectively isolate yourself from those who 
have adopted its maxims as the rule of their 
actions and judgments. In this you should 


100 


SERIOUS HOURS 


conform to all that due decorum requires, and 
endeavor to preserve your mind and heart 
against the pernicious influences often commu¬ 
nicated by words, actions, lessons or examples 
of those who are slaves of the laws or customs of 
the world. The danger is the more imminent 
inasmuch as the sunny side only of the world 
is displayed to you ; while no pains are 
spared on the part of those bound to you by 
the most sacred ties to engage you to adopt 
their views and imitate their example. This 
is certainly one of the most delicate positions 
in which a young lady can be placed, when 
her only arms of defense are the uprightness of 
her mind, the innocence of her heart and the 
purity of her instincts. 

St. Bernard says, “ to serve God is to reign.’’ 
By a contradictory assertion, we can safely say, 
to serve the world is to be a slave ; and of all 
servitudes there is none so hard nor so humil- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


101 


iating as that which the world imposes upon 
those who yield to its empire. If God were 
so exacting as the world, so inflexible in the 
laws that He imposes upon us, so severe in 
the chastisements by which delinquencies are 
punished, piety would be an insupportable 
burden through the weakness of the greater 
part of men; and God would find very few 
worshipers who would be willing to submit to 
such an ordeal. 

What is most remarkable and worthy of 
compassion is the fact that, very often, those 
who groan the most under this slavery are at 
the same time those who support it with the 
greatest resignation. 

To suffer for a genuine duty, for a generous 
sentiment, for a noble or grand idea, is some¬ 
thing which the human heart can, not only 
accept, but even love and choose with a certain 
pride; but to suffer for the sake of worldly 


102 


SERIOUS HOURS 


etiquette, for the sake of fashion, for things 
and parsons despised for their tyranny, is a 
deplorable humiliation for those who do it. 
And, nevertheless, the greater part of those 
who might be called world-worshipers, who 
seem to give it the tone , bear patiently its 
yoke, which debases them in their own eyes,— 
pandering to necessities which they have 
imprudently created, and from which they now 
find it impossible to free themselves. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


103 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

the life of a woman of the world were 
HI proposed as a model, and, after having 
carefully examined all her occupations, you 
would discover what would be hard for you to 
be convinced of before having done so, namely : 
that there are women so inconsiderate as to feast 
their minds on such frivolities, so forgetful of 
their dignity as to make it subservient to such 
misery, so trifling as to make a serious work of 
bagatelles , which at most can be considered as 
little better than childish amusement; your 
soul, still rich in its primitive candor, and 
favored with an energy tempered in the love 
and habit of virtue, would revolt at the thought 
of such debasement. And, nevertheless, unless 


104 


SERIOUS HOURS 


you apply your mind to acquire a love for 
serious matters you will not escape a disorder 
which you so justly deplore in others; you 
will be captured in those windings which have 
proved fatal fastnesses to women of other days. 
There remains no choice between these two 
alternatives: you must either found your 
conduct upon intelligence enlightened by faith, 
or abandon it, like a rudderless ship, to the 
caprice of passion and pleasure. 

The life of a worldly woman is a fictitious 
life: nature seems to have no attractions for 
her; her soul has lost all taste for its charms; 
she studiously endeavors to shut out its influ¬ 
ences, and to subvert as much as possible the 
order by which it is governed. This estrange¬ 
ment, this disgust with nature, haunts her 
wherever she goes, even in the making of her 
toilet, even in the employment of her time. 
She converts day into night and night into 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


105 


day? giving to pleasure the time destined 
for repose; she purloins from the industrious 
hours of {lay the sleep and rest for which 
her wearied limbs and excited imagination 
contend. 

While she is sleeping, the humble daughter 
of St. Benedict or St. Dominic leaves her cell to 
sing the praises of the Lord, and offer Him the 
day with its duties consecrated without reserve 
to His glory. When heavy curtains screen her 
restless slumber from the suns obtrusive light, 
the pious daughter of St. Vincent de Paul 
descends into the folds of her own heart in 
meditation, and enkindles in the fire of divine 
love the charity with which she must cheer 
the poor or sick whom she is destined to visit 
during the day. 

What a difference between those two lives ! 
The worldling rises rested, but not from a 
refreshing sleep, she is aroused perhaps by 


106 


SERIOUS HOURS 


the importunate rays of the mid-day sun 
or by the noisy tramping of hardy workmen who, 
after their half day’s work is done, return 
home to partake of a frugal repast and 
receive the sweet greetings of a Christian 
family. It is then that her day begins, 
as also the series of the grave occupations that 
are destined to fill it. The time is short and 
scarcely suffices to prepare herself for the 
evening amusements; all her energies are now 
employed to give herself that external grace and 
charm necessary to render her conspicuous in 
the joyous circle. Alas! the worldly woman is 
entirely absorbed in herself, and when she does 
something for others, it is with a view to 
secure her own interest or pleasure. That 
devotedness, that generous sacrifice and dis¬ 
interestedness characteristic of true friendship 
is to her a mere paradox, as she is an entire 
stranger to its effects and charms. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


107 


After her toilet, her most serious occupations 
are the visits which she pays and receives. A 
visit prompted by charity or some other virtue 
is good, highly commendable and praiseworthy. 
I admire and understand the woman who 
leaves the peaceful company of her family, 
when no pressing need requires her presence, 
to go and visit the poor and destitute, in order 
to sweeten their bitter lot by a word of encour¬ 
agement or a little alms. I understand and 
admire her who readily sacrifices her legitimate 
joy in order to go and mingle her tears with 
those of her friend and mitigate her sorrow or 
share it with her. I understand and esteem 
the woman who, impressed by the superior 
wisdom and exemplary piety of another woman, 
goes to her for advice, devoting with pleasure 
her leisure hours to that end. I see in all these 
circumstances a motive that is serious, 
honorable, praiseworthy, and capable of 


108 


SERIOUS HOURS 


acting upon a noble heart and an elevated 
intelligence. But, among the visits made 
by worldly women ; how few there are that are 
prompted by such motives ! The greater part of 
those women visit with no other view than to 
pass the time, to pander to their own vanity 
and curiosity, to form or execute some 
intrigue. What is said and done in their 
visits is worthy of the motive that inspires 
them. There is not a single serious thought 
expressed, not a single word to show that 
these women have an intelligence capable 
of comprehending the truth, a heart made to 
love what is good, or a soul capable of 
receiving God Himself. If life were but a 
dream, if there be no hereafter, if at death 
the soul must perish with the body ; and man 
must sink into the nothingness whence he 
sprang ; they would have nothing to change in 
their visits, conversations and conduct. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


109 


There is a visit celebrated in Holy Writ, 
a visit paid by a young woman to one of her 
own sex but more advanced in years, a visit so 
holy and renowned that its anniversary is cele¬ 
brated throughout the Christian world,—it is 
the visit paid by the Blessed Virgin to her 
cousin St. Elizabeth. 0, Christian ladies, be¬ 
hold your true model ! Compare this visit with 
yours, and judge yourselves according to it. 
Compare your motives with those of Mary. 
Compare your conversations with that sublime 
conversation of which the sacred writer has 
given us a fragment, being the most sublime 
canticle that has ever been uttered by any 
intelligent creature under the action of divine 
inspiration. Oh, what a world-wide difference 
between this sublime canticle and the light 
and frivolous conversations in which so many 
women indulge ; if you were to look for the 
reverse of this heavenly visit you would inva- 

D 


110 


SERIOUS HOURS 


riably find it among the visits paid by worldly 
women. 

Mary carries with her the Son of God, the 
Author of grace, the Principle of eternal life, 
the Source of chaste desires and holy hopes. 
The worldly woman carries with her in her 
visits the spirit of the world, the spirit of 
deception, egotism and folly, which is in every 
way opposed to the spirit of Christianity. Mary 
sings the praises of humility and proclaims it 
the virtue beloved of God,—the virtue which 
secures His love and assistance ; she extols the 
happiness of those who thirst for justice and 
truth, deploring at the same time the spiritual 
poverty and indigence of those who are puffed 
up with self-conceit. The worldly woman, on 
the contrary, seeks in her conversations to 
flatter her vanity and pride by parading the 
empty resources of her imagination and mis¬ 
guided intelligence. She envies the happinesss 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


Ill 


of those who, rich in beauty and all those 
qualities that charm, draw many admirers 
around them. Elizabeth, on beholding her 
cousin, felt her infant leap for joy. The 
worldly woman stirs up in the hearts of those 
whom she visits the most frivolous instincts, 
and sometimes even the worst passions. 

This tableau excites your love and disgust. 
The comparison frightens you; and perhaps 
inthe simplicity of your heart you will say, 
it is not free from exaggeration. On the 
contrary, you will be sadly disappointed when, 
at a more advanced age, you will clearly 
see that this is a very mild and subdued 
picture of what is true and real. Your age 
and innocence do not allow me to reveal to 
you all the mysteries of sin—all the snares, 
all the dangers, all the frivolities that fill up 
the days of a worldly woman. 


112 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Would that what I have said of her may 
inspire you with salutary horror for her life; 
and make you shun the snares in which she 
has been taken ! I pray that you, satisfied with 
the knowledge you have of her follies, may 
never feel the desire of adding to what you 
already know, the fatal knowledge imparted 
by experience ! That you may never forget 
these words of St. John : Love not the world , 
nor the things which are in the world; for 
all that is in the world is the concupiscence 
of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes 
and the pride of life. (I John ii. 15-16.) 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


113 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE WILL. 

■ T JOHN, the Apostle, addressing those 
who have not yet passed the age of adoles¬ 
cence, says in his first Epistles : “ I write unto 
you , because... you have overcome the wicked 
one” Then speaking to those who have attained 
the age of manhood, he says : “ 1 write to you , 
young men , because you are strong , and the 
word of God abideth in you , and you have 
overcome the wicked one” Again, in the book 
of Proverbs, chapter xxxi, the inspired writer 
speaks in the following terms: “ Who shall 
find a valiant woman 1 The price of her is as 
of things brought from afar off , and from the 
uttermost coasts... She hath put out her hand 
to strong things.... strength and beauty are 


114 


SERIOUS HOURS 


her clothing ; and she shall laugh in the latter 
day , she hath opened her mouth to wisdom 
and the law of clemency is on her tongue .... 
Favor is deceitful , and beauty is vain; the 
woman that feareth the Lord , she shall be 
praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; 
and let her works praise her in the gates. ” 
Thus, according to Holy Writ, fortitude or 
strength is the portion of youth, which is mani¬ 
fested by the victories of the will over the 
enemy of our salvation. This valor is regarded 
by the sacred writer as one of the finest qual¬ 
ities with which woman can be adorned, since 
she owes to it all her true success and glory. 
Now what is this precious quality ? In what 
faculty of the soul does it reside ? What are 
the signs by which its presence is made mani¬ 
fest ? What is the end to which it tends ? 
What are the rewards that crown its victories ? 
These are questions of deep interest, and the 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


115 


importance attached to a knowledge of their 
solution cannot be too great. 

In the first place we shall begin by stating 
that the seat of valor is found in the will. To 
be valiant consists in willing intensely what 
is painful to nature, accomplishing what is 
proposed with energy and perseverance. I 
have often treated this subject, but it is so 
inexhaustible that it always seems new. Its 
importance grows tvith time, and now-a-days 
it cannot be insisted on too much, nor can 
there be too much attention paid to it by those 
who wish to preserve in this world the integrity 
of their conscience and lead an irreproachable 
life. 

Alas ! it is painful to avow that this generous 
will is too rarely met with. This noble faculty 
of the soul is made subservient to other faculties 
which should be subject to and directed by it. 
The mind has perhaps acquired greater vivacity 


116 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and penetration. The imagination, under the 
action of a constant change of images, and 
those sensations which the activity of life mul¬ 
tiplies so rapidly in our time, has perhaps 
become richer and more varied. The heart, 
cherished while young by the cares and caresses 
common to the paternal roof, has perhaps more 
confidence and candor. But the will, what has 
become of it, what has it gained by this devel¬ 
opment of all the powers of the soul ? Where 
is its place among them ? It should be their 
ruler, whereas it is made their slave; they have 
conspired its overthrow. 

It is true that very often the enfeebling of 
this great faculty is due to the excessive 
tenderness of those who have allowed us to 
contract pernicious habits. Who is it that 
speaks to the child’s will ? Who teaches him 
how to use that faculty and resist with energy 
the caprices of his imagination, the passions of 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


117 


the heart, the empire of the senses, the seduc¬ 
tions of the world ? These are duties that the 
will is called on to discharge, and as long as 
man shall live such duties will be of daily 
occurrence,—hence the will^ is destined to be 
constantly called into action. 

The will serves us when all the other facul¬ 
ties fail to act. When the exhausted imagina¬ 
tion sinks into a lethargic slumber; when the 
worried heart loses all relish for everything; 
when the mind, dreading the light of truth, 
gives itself over to error and prejudice; when 
the smoke of passion blinds the intelligence 
and suffocates the senses; it is then that the 
will, fashioned in the school of pliant energy, 
seizing the reins with a firm and vigorous 
grasp, snatches the imagination from its torpor 
by bringing it to bear on objects capable of 
arousing it; it is then that the will animates 
the heart with generous and noble sentiments, 


118 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and applies the mind to the consideration of 
truths which enlighten and fortify it. 

There exists a strange abuse relative to the 
nature and essence of the will. Very often, 
parents, blinded by a false prejudice, see with 
pleasure, and admire in their children, stub¬ 
bornness and obstinacy of character; and, look¬ 
ing forward to their future with an air of pride, 
they say : “ That child will have a strong win.” 
Deplorable error ! Woe to the parents who faH 
into it, and the children who are its object! 
When the wiH is truly strong, far from being 
obstinate it is, on the contrary, pliant and 
tractable. No human power can restore sup¬ 
pleness to the arm which a convulsive parox¬ 
ysm has stiffened, yet it does not follow that 
this arm is stronger than when it was in a 
healthy condition. The stiffness, far from 
increasing'its strength, decidedly weakens it. In 
like manner the will’s strength does not lie in 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


119 


stubborn obstinacy, but rather in that pliancy 
which enables it to dispose itself as circum¬ 
stances may require. 

A stubborn character has nothing in common 
with this noble and precious faculty of the 
soul. And, like all the others, this faculty pos¬ 
sesses two degrees of elevation; in the one it 
comes in direct contact with the senses and 
the external world; and in the other, raised 
above all sensibility, it receives its light and 
movement from on high. 

The will, taken in its inferior part, is nothing 
else than that appetite or blind instinct which 
we hold in common with the brute creation; 
and by which animals are governed in their 
choice of some things and their rejection of 
others. If the will, properly so called, con¬ 
sisted in this blind instinct, man would be 
inferior to the ass and the mule, whose attrac¬ 
tions and repugnances are more imperious than 


120 


SERIOUS HOURS 


those of other animals. The will, as under¬ 
stood in the true Christian sense of the term, 
acts in contradiction to this brutal appetite; 
hence they alone have a strong will who can, 
when duty and conscience require it, obey 
their voice with docility, in spite of all in- 
stintive opposition. 

The education of the will, I admit, is a long 
and painful process. We are taught at a dear 
rate how to hnow and judge things; but we 
must learn at a dearer price how to will. The 
culture of the mind is the least important and 
the easiest part of our education, while the 
culture of the will is extremely important and 
demands much time and labor; yet, through a 
most culpable negligence, it is just the faculty 
that receives the least attention and culture. 
Too many imagine that the training of the will 
may be done at any time and, what is still 
more erroneous, that age, experience and 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


121 


events will suffice to do this work. Hence we 
see every day poor souls entering the scene of 
life without an educated will, which alone is 
capable of reacting against the evils and trials 
from which none in this world can escape. 
This is the cause of that imbecility which ren¬ 
ders the most precious qualities of mind and 
heart useless ; generating inconsistencies and 
uncertainties which, in the moment of trial, 
deprive the heart of its energy and the mind 
of all light, thus leaving the soul open to all 
the assaults of misfortune. 

We are obliged to chronicle a painful truth 
when we assert that the culture of the will is 
sadly neglected in education in general, but 
more especially so in that of women. There are 
even some so blind as to think that a strong will 
in woman is a dangerous quality, alleging, as a 
proof of their assertion, the puerile reason, that 
since woman was made to obey she should find 


122 


SERIOUS HOURS 


in another’s will the rule of her actions. But, 
we ask, if woman can have no will of her own, 
how can she exercise the virtue of obedience, 
since that virtue consists in bending the will to 
duty ? And since, in her sphere, she is con¬ 
stantly called on to practice obedience it is just 
the reason why she should have a strong will. 

Now if from a tender age she has not given 
due attention to this precious faculty of her 
soul; if she has contracted the fatal habit of 
acting without a purpose, without reflecting, 
through caprice, following by a blind instinct 
the allurements that flatter the senses and 
imagination; if she has not learned to conquer 
herself, to put duty before pleasure, and the 
voice of conscience above that of the passions 
and honor; how will she be able to live with a 
husband capricious perhaps in his desires and 
stubborn in his will ? How will she be able to 
confront his exactions or cope with his rage ? 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


123 


How will she bear with the faults of her 
servants and of those with whom she may be 
obliged to live ? How will she, in her warn¬ 
ings and reproaches be able to blend in a just 
proportion mildness and firmness, to obtain the 
salutary effects which she desires ? 

The path of life is not strewn with flowers; 
all is not joy and happiness here below. Wo¬ 
man is destined, as well as man, to meet with 
days of sorrow and bitterness, when a firm, 
patient will must be her only port of safety. 
To woman patience is, perhaps of all virtues, 
the most necessary to sustain her in mental 
anxieties and various other sufferings that are 
inevitable; and, since patience is a fruit of 
the will, it follows that a morbid will cannot 
produce an enduring patience, the deficiency 
of which must render her life almost intoler¬ 
able. 

He that sails with the current and a favor- 


124 


SERIOUS HOURS 


able wind need not ply his oars; but when 
there is question of going in the contrary direc¬ 
tion, what was at first a great advantage becomes 
now a double disadvantage, and he can succeed 
only by strenuous efforts. 

During the days of youthful glee you glide 
gaily down the river of life, going with the 
current, favored by the breeze of hope, charmed 
by varied and softly-changing scenes. But 
this time will soon have an end : sorrow will 
embitter your joys ere the frost of age shall 
have cooled the blood or chilled the imagina¬ 
tion ; very soon, in a few years, perhaps, it will 
knock at the door of your soul; and you will 
be obliged to give this inopportune visitor 
admittance, to remain with you, perhaps, for the 
rest of your life. Among the young ladies of 
your acquaintance are there not some who are 
unhappy ? And can you, without a voluntary 
illusion, convince yourself that youth is a 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


125 


preservative against misfortune ? Are you 
prepared to ward off the intruder ? If it wounds 
you how will you endure the pain? It is 
imprudent to delay the acquisition of a parti¬ 
cular branch of learning until its practical use 
becomes necessary; and since it is while we are 
hale and hearty that we should learn to die 
well, so it is while prosperity smiles on us 
that we should learn to bear adversity. Learn 
now, while young, to support all the vicissi¬ 
tudes of life; make timely provision, not only 
against adversity, but also against prosperity, 
which for many is the more dangerous of the 
two. 

Prepare to meet not only those who will 
try your patience by their unjust or trouble¬ 
some doings, but also those whose affection^ 
officiousness, and flattery, will perhaps exact 
from you a greater exercise of virtue. Be on 
your guard, not only against others, but also 


126 


SERIOUS HOURS 


against yourself. Learn to bear with yourself 
to suffer with courage the inconstancy of your 
own humor, the flights of your imagina¬ 
tion, the impetuosity of your character, the 
violent and inordinate movements of your 
heart. Accustom your will to wield the scepter 
and resolutely to govern the passions, which 
are most powerful auxiliaries for good or for 
evil, — for good when under the complete 
control of the will, for evil when they are 
emancipated from its sway, for then they 
become the vultures of life, and a torment of 
the soul 

Xever lose sight of the fact that you require 
a stronger will to obey than to command, and 
that your condition, far from rendering your 
will less necessary, shows, on the contrary, that 
it is indispensable to you ; unless, by indorsing 
that unjust and outrageous judgment by which 
the world seeks to degrade the dignity of 



OF A YOUNG LADY. 


127 


woman, you force upon yourself the conviction 
that her will should count for nothing either 
at home or abroad,—that she is destined to be 
blindly led by the caprices of others; unless 
you confound obedience with servitude, and 
authorize the prejudices of those who pretend 
that woman should have neither thought nor 
will of her own, but that another is charged 
with thinking and willing for her, thus exoner¬ 
ating her from all responsibility. 

If this be your conviction, I ask : “ Why do 
you read this book ? Close it, it is not written 
for you ; because from the first page to the 
last it constantly discloses to your view all 
the titles of your glory and the grandeur of 
your dignity. Close your eyes to the light of 
truth, shackle the will’s liberty lest you 
may see and feel the shame and humiliation 
of your sad condition; and, like a thing inert, 
await in dumb silence until some trafficker 



128 


SERIOUS HOURS 


may come and calculate how much he will 
gain in fortune and pleasure by purchasing 
you! ” Behold the deplorable condition to 
which the pagan theories of the world reduce 
woman ! behold the degree of abjection to 
which she herself descends when, losing sight 
of the light of faith, which exposes the true 
nature of things, she suffers herself to be 
deceived by the vain systems of a world 
worthy of God’s anathemas, and governed by 
the spirit of deception. 

No, woman has not been created to be a 
slave; God has neither destined nor consigned 
to such a humiliating state that half of hu¬ 
manity from which He has chosen His mother, 
and which has been favored with a holy reflec¬ 
tion of the glory of Mary. God required a 
positive act of woman’s will in her co-operation 
in the work of our redemption,—and to obtain 
it He did not hesitate to choose as His ambas- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


129 


sador, one of the brightest of His archangels. 
Judge from this the respect and importance 
due to woman’s will. Moreover, it is a signi¬ 
ficant truth, sustained by a long experience, 
that the salvation of a family, of a father, a 
brother, a son, a husband, is secured in a great 
measure by the care and prayers, the firm and 
wise, yet mild and prudent conduct of a Chris¬ 
tian woman, deeply penetrated with the pro¬ 
found sentiment of her dignity and the true 
importance of her duties,—all of which depend 
upon a firm and patient will. 


130 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTEE X. 


THE IMAGINATION. 


■ HE imagination, that active agent of the 
senses, is the bee which, in its con¬ 
tinual excursions, gathers from the flower-cups 
the sweet scented dust from which, by due 
process, it forms the wax that gives us light 
and the honey that nourishes us. Your soul 
is like a bee-hive, full of activity and life. The 
external world is like a flower-garden, in 
which each flower has its peculiar color, per¬ 
fume and brightness. Your imagination is 
the working bee of this hive, which resounds 
with the humming of the senses. The will 
governs and directs all with perfect harmony, 
when peaceful order reigns in all its workings. 
But the moment that the will fails to dis- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


131 


charge the duties of its office, the imagination 
and the senses, like bees deprived of their 
queen, wander hither and thither without any 
determined purpose, and the hive is abandoned 
to inaction or disorder. 

It is of paramount importance to you to 
have a clear knowledge of the nature, end 
and functions of all the faculties of your soul; 
so that you may keep them within the prov¬ 
ince that God has allotted to them, and that 
no disorder may arise from the attempted 
encroachments of some upon others. This point 
becomes one of grave importance when there is 
question of the imagination , because it is the 
most rash, most ambitious, most violent and 
at the same time, the most seductive, of all the 
faculties. 

Holding an intermediate place between the 
soul and the senses, it is the most accessible to 
the charms of the external world, and parti- 


132 


SERIOUS HOURS 


cipates in the inconstant and tumultuous 
movements of our own sensibility. Confined 
to its own sphere of action, it is a precious 
auxiliary, which often facilitates the perception 
of the truth, and the accomplishment of good, 
by presenting them to the mind and heart under 
colors that render them amiable and attractive. 
When properly employed, it is an invaluable 
gift of God, who has given it to us to aid the 
infirmity of our nature, by rendering less 
painful the efforts that we are so often obliged 
to make in order to triumph over our bad 
inclinations. But when we fail to make a 
proper use of it, it then becomes for us a 
source of danger, and a great obstacle to our 
advancement towards perfection. 

Placed between the will and the senses, it 
should neither be controlled by the latter nor 
emancipated from the sway of the former. 
The faithful observance of this condition can 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


133 


alone insure us all the advantages we may 
hope to derive from it. Should it prove to be 
a frequent cause of mischief to us it is 
because we let it act independently of the 
will’s control—in which case it is sure to 
become the slave of the senses. Separated from 
the intelligence, from which it receives light, 
and from the will, which points out its course 
of action, the imagination is a blind instinct, 
precipitous in its movements, impetuous and 
inconstant in its flights, violent and capricious 
in its pursuits. It is in constant agitation and 
torment, passing from one object to another, 
jumping with a single bound from one extreme 
to another, from sorrow to joy, from love to 
hate, from fear to hope. 

It magnifies or diminishes things according 
to the caprice of the moment; and gives a 
color of sovereign importance to things which 
in reality are the merest trifles; a word, a 


134 


SERIOUS HOURS 


look, a sign preoccupies and alarms it; it 
feasts on suspicion and anxiety, fictitious hopes 
and deceitful reports ; it seizes with avidity 
on the things that please it, but scarcely is it 
in possession of the sought for objects when it 
abandons them with disgust. Hence the 
impressions to which it gives rise are as whim¬ 
sical and as inconstant as itself; they appear 
and disappear in the soul without any apparent 
reason for their presence or absence. 

The woman, whose imagination has been 
developed at the expense of her other faculties, 
may be said to lead a dreamy, fictitious, con¬ 
tentious and agitated life. This state is rendered 
still more dangerous by the agreeable forms 
which it assumes, and which flatter the mind 
and senses by their rapid and constant changes. 
Hence it is that women endowed with this 
doleful gift have the sad privilege of drawing 
around them persons of volatile minds and 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


135 


inconstant hearts. They invariably finish by 
becoming the dupes of their own fickle impres¬ 
sions, and are taken in the snares in which 
their vanity sought to inveigle others. 

Could you but see the living tableau of one 
of those souls tyrannized by the imagination, 
the sight would arouse both your compassion 
and disgust; for her’s is a fickle, inconstant, 
fretful and worried life. During the long 
dreary days not a single instant is completely 
and sincerely given to God. Her thoughts, 
affections, desires and occupations never rise 
above trivialness. Among the multitude of 
persons of her acquaintance there is not a 
single one whom she sincerely loves, or to 
whom she can render herself amiable. In the 
multiplied interviews to which she has devoted 
her life-time not a single genuine affection 
can be found : words which the lips pronounce 
and which the heart ignores ; visits made 


136 


SERIOUS HOURS 


through etiquette or inspired by frivolity; 
conversations that are mutually indulged in 
for mutual illusion or deception;—such are 
the joys, such the occupations, of this woman. 

With dispositions such as these there cannot 
be question of sincere piety nor of a Christian 
spirit. Piety resides in the will and supposes 
the love of duty ; imagination abhors duty and 
seeks only after pleasure. True, the grace of 
God is all-powerful, it is not tied down to the 
development of our natural qualities, and God 
knows well, when He pleases, how to come to 
the assistance of the soul’s faculties, and plant 
the germs of solid virtue in a heart that is 
frivolous and badly disposed; still it is an evi¬ 
dent fact that among souls there are some 
better prepared than others to receive this 
divine seed, which takes deeper root when the 
heart is well disposed. Now, among all the 
agents that can unfit us for the reception of 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


137 


divine grace there is none so bad as an ungov¬ 
erned imagination, because it is the source, 
especially among women, of the most fatal illu¬ 
sions. 

A woman in this condition spends her whole 
life-time in deceiving herself and in deceiving 
others—not purposely,but by a fatal and volun¬ 
tary illusion; she can see nothing in its true 
light; all objects appear to her under strange 
colors; she forms her judgment of them accord¬ 
ing to the impression they make on the senses, 
or the effect they produce in the imagination. 
All this unfits her for the reception of those 
supernatural truths which fortify the mind 
without troubling the imagination, and, con¬ 
sequently, she remains insensible to the 
sweet impressions of grace which acts so 
mildly on the heart as to be unperceived 
by the senses. To such a woman piety 
is a mere matter of form, made up of certain 


138 


SERIOUS HOURS 


practices which, in the guise of religion, 
flatter and feed her imagination. But the 
most terrible feature of this condition is, 
that it always grows worse, keeping the 
soul in a cloud of darkness, which even the 
special light attendant on death cannot dispel. 

Thus, living and dying, they deceive them¬ 
selves, and carry their illusions to the very 
tribunal of the Sovereign Judge. Then, and 
not till then, do they discover the truth which, 
though seeing , they did not 'perceive during 
life. Then, in doleful cries and lamentations 
will they exclaim, Alas! “ We deceived our¬ 
selves , we have gone astray from the path of 
truth! ’’ 

Do not expose yourself to the same sad 
fate and doleful end; avoid the danger 
while it is yet time; train your imagination 
from a tender age, keep its activity under 
control,—then, instead of being a source of vile 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


139 


it will be a source of most precious advantages 
to you. 

One of the best means by which you can 
succeed in doing this is to fortify your will, 
giving it that authority and consistency which 
it needs in order to govern the imagination; 
without a strong will, that remains always self- 
composed in the’ midst of the tumult of the 
senses and the activity of the imagination, you 
will certainly fail to confine the latter to a just 
moderation. 

That your judgment may enjoy perfect 
liberty and ease, your every act should be 
determined during peaceful calmness. Do not 
forget that, while you are passing through 
moments of excitement and pre-occupation, you 
are unable to see things rightly and execute 
them properly. When in this state of mind 
a project is proposed to your consideration; 
you will find that your heart is already fixed 


140 


SERIOUS HOURS. 


upon it before you have duly examined it; 
then the liberty of your mind becomes shackled 
either by vain hopes or fears suggested by 
some blind and violent instinct. In this and 
similar circumstances you should proceed 
with great precaution. 

It is prudent and wise to defer taking action 
in any serious matter until self-composure is 
completely restored, until the mind is serene, 
the heart at peace, and the will in full posses¬ 
sion of its liberty. Listen not to the plausible 
solicitations—obey not the impulses of your 
imagination, but wait several days, or weeks, 
or even months if necessary ; for a final deter¬ 
mination taken in the midst of confusion and 
agitation will inevitably entail bitter regrets. 
Even prayer will not obtain for you, while in 
such a state of mind, all the light that you 
need. What you should first ask is, that God 
would lull this storm, and restore peace to your 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


141 


soul; but it is not the moment to pray that He 
may inspire you what to do in this or that 
difficulty, because, preoccupied as you are, you 
will perhaps take for the voice of God and of 
your conscience the cries of your troubled 
imagination. 

When, after a mature and serious examina¬ 
tion of the matter at issue, you have calmly 
discovered what course to adopt, it is then 
time to enlist the service of the imagination 
to aid your will, and get it interested in the 
work that you have to do, in order to impart 
new energy to the soul, and new light to the 
intelligence; when it is docile to the orders of 
the will it is a powerful auxiliary for good. 

Never forget that the liberty of the mind 
and heart is an indispensable condition to 
judge rightly, to love with security, and to 
act with prudence ; and that whatever tends 
to diminish this liberty should arouse your 


142 


SERIOUS HOURS. 


suspicions, no matter what may be its apparent 
advantages; for these can never equal the 
advantages accruing from an unshackled 
heart and mind. 


OF A YOUNG LADY 


143 


CHAPTER XI. 

PIETY. 

^OHOST appropriately indeed was the name 
'piety given by our fathers in the faith 
to the sentiment which elevates the mind and 
heart to God. It establishes an intimate 
union between God and the Christian soul, 
for it is an affection composed of the most 
generous qualities of the human heart. In 
woman, it is a mixture of respect, devotedness 
and tenderness, which are enhanced still more 
by a certain blending of fear, confidence, and 
candor. Man is pious towards God and his 
parents ; but the woman whose heart is not 
vitiated by anything fictitious is pious towards 
those whom she loves, for in each one of her 
affections may be found, combined in different 


144 


SERIOUS HOURS. 


degrees, all the shades of sentiment that we 
have mentioned above; but it is in her piety 
towards God that they are especially striking. 

Woman’s heart languishes for God, because 
it thirsts after the good and beautiful ; and 
all her efforts to satisfy its cravings will prove 
futile until it is immersed in the bosom of the 
Divinity, the Source of all goodness and beauty. 
With woman the heart is the great receptacle 
of grace, the principal agent in the practice of 
piety and virtue. If this precious disposition 
of her heart offers many and great advantages, 
it carries with it also its inconveniences. The 
heart is a near neighbor of the imagination, 
and the latter often allures the former by its 
charms. Its activity is often developed and 
exercised at the expense of the will, by dimin¬ 
ishing and enfeebling the power and influence 
of the latter. It not unfrequently happens 
that the heart becomes the seat of dangerous 


OF A YOUNG LADY, 


145 


illusions, when it not only favors, but even 
indulges in that tender and sensible piety, 
which is founded on and fed by lively 
sentiments and beautiful images. In this 
state it costs no little effort to will and act. 

The reading of a pious book, the meditating 
on the mysteries of the passion and death of 
our Saviour will melt the heart to tenderness. 
Thus, nature has a greater share than grace in 
piety and fervor of this stamp. Self-com¬ 
placency and self-love are here most adroitly 
concealed under the garb of humility, and it 
requires a rare sagacity to discover their 
presence. The Christian soul in this state 
seeks not to please God or others, but it seeks 
rather its own pleasure, and for many women 
this kind of piety is a form of affectation and 
vanity. With those fine sentiments and enthu¬ 
siastic transports they remain unmortified, 
vain and curious lovers of flattery and averse 


146 


SERIOUS HOURS 


to reproof, retaining all their faults, which 
they endeavor to conceal under the mask of 
external piety. 

Do not ask such women to bridle their will 
or to restrain the sallies of their humor,—speak 
not to them of the good derived from self- 
mortification, self-abnegation and the love of 
the Cross,—words such as these have no signi¬ 
fication for them. They are satisfied with 
simply feeling and giving expression to those 
virtues, after the manner of artists who, by a 
happy disposition of mind, are expert in be¬ 
coming penetrated with ideas and sentiments 
in which their will has no part whatever; and 
which have no moral influence over their life. 

They are delighted to go with Jesus on 
Mount Tabor and contemplate Him in the 
splendor of His glory; but when there is 
question of participating in His ignominy on 
Calvary they most shamefully abandon Him. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


147 


And when He asks them to aid Him to carry 
His cross they do it, if at all, as reluctantly as 
did Simon of Cyrene. They willingly multi¬ 
ply prayers and exterior practices of piety, 
w T hich flatter natural inclinations; they frequent 
the Sacraments, and this furnishes them the 
occasion and means of producing those lively 
and tender sentiments upon which the heart 
loves to feast. 

Their doleful condition is rendered still 
more deplorable by the use of the most sacred 
things to nourish their self-love and sensibility. 
Grace, according to their views of the spiritual 
life, is only a means to render natural sensi¬ 
bility more delicate and refined. Thus, led on 
from one delusion to another, such women 
come to the end of their life, rich in foliage and 
flowers, but without ever having produced any 
fruit. 

I hope, dear reader, that such may not be 


148 


SERIOUS HOURS 


your case ; but, to avoid all error on a point of 
such vital interest, meditate constantly on the 
divine instructions that Jesus has left us in 
the Sacred Scriptures, and on those also with 
which He inspired the pious author of the 
“ Following of Christ,” their most perfect 
commentator. Learn to discern genuine piety 
from that which bears only the name. Learn 
to distinguish between its object and that 
which is only a means to attain that object,— 
two things which are frequently and erro¬ 
neously confounded, yet which are very distinct 
and very different from each other; for it is a 
great mistake to neglect the end by attaching 
too much importance to the means by which 
to attain it. 

Piety does not consist in sublime language, 
mystical thoughts, or angelical sentiments, 
for, according to St. Paul, we might speak the 
language of angels and be still only sounding 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


149 


brass ; neither does it consist in the knowledge 
of divine mysteries, nor in the more excellent 
intellectual gifts; for, according to the same 
apostle, a man might be a prophet and possess 
a knowledge of all science, without being on 
that account anything in the sight of God. 

Faith is truly grand, because it is the prin¬ 
cipal basis of our justification ; and because 
with it we are enabled to obtain all things from 
God. Nevertheless, man might have faith 
strong enough to move mountains and be 
absolutely nothing before God. Charity to the 
poor, compassion for the unfortunate are 
indeed excellent virtues, because they cancel 
numerous sins, and because they seem to form 
the principal matter of that terrible judgment 
which will decide our weal or woe for eter¬ 
nity ; yet you might distribute all your wealth 
among the poor, and still merit no reward 
from God.’ 


150 


SERIOUS HOURS 


We are recommended by the Holy Scriptures 
and by the masters of the spiritual life to 
practice mortification, the perfection of which 
s found in martyrdom ; and neverthless, though 
you should even lacerate your body till it became 
one bleeding wound, and deliver it into the 
hands of the executioner to be burned, you 
might gain nothing thereby. 

None of all those things constitutes the 
essence of piety. One thing alone can claim 
this privilege and that is charity, not that 
charity which consists merely in feeling and 
speaking , but a charity that is active , and 
which penetrates the entire life by its divine, 
influence; that charity which is patient and 
beneficent, not envious, dealing not perversely, 
not puffed up. True charity is not ambitious 
seeks not its own, is not provoked to anger, 
thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity 
but for the good it beholds everywhere, it 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


151 


bears all things, believes all things, hopes all 
things and endures all things; such is the soul 
of true piety according to the Apostle St. Paul. 
(Cor. I Epist., xiii chap.) 

Our divine Lord clearly defines its nature 
in the following terms : “ If any man will 

come after me , let him deny himself and take 
up his cross , and follow me, for he that will 
save his life, shall lose it , and he that shall 
lose his life for my sake shall find it” 
(Matth. ch. xvi.) To be a Christian consists 
in walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ 
Hence, to follow Him and carry the cross, self- 
denial is the first and most necessary qualifica¬ 
tion. In order to enjoy the eternal happiness 
of the future life we must sacrifice the false 
joys of earth. Again, He tells us: “ The 
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the 
violent bear it away,” that is to say, the 
valiant, the energetic, and persevering, will 


152 


SERIOUS HOURS 


alone succeed in securing it; for the words 
bear away express the action of one that 
seizes a prey. Add to these texts those 
others of St. Paul: “ If any man have not the 
spirit of Christ , he is none of his,” that is—he 
does not belong to Christ, he is not His disciple; 
and u they that are Christ’s have crucified their 
flesh with the vices and concupiscences. ” 

Now I would not have you think that the 
piety of which I speak is too elevated for you, 
that it can be practiced only by members of 
religious orders, and very holy laics—this 
is by no means the case. What is required 
of you is nothing more than what our Lord 
and all the saints would have you do. 

I must point out another error not less 
pernicious to the practice of true piety, 
namely; that of taking the means to the 
acquisition of piety as the end for which you 
practice it, for the means should at all times 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


153 


be appreciated according to their just value, or 
according to the assistance they give you to 
attain your end as a true Christian, which 
consists in dying to self and to self-glory. I 
would not have you judge of your progress in 
perfection by the number of your communions, 
or the multitude of your pious practices, or 
the length of your prayers, but by the victories 
which you gain over yourself, over your pas¬ 
sions, your character, and your temper. 

Like all other good things, you can turn 
prayer to your spiritual detriment, when you 
have recourse to it through vain glory. Be 
thoroughly convinced of the truth expressed 
by the Evangelist St. John, that he is a liar 
who says that he loves God ? and does not keep 
his commandments. Remember that the 
spirit of darkness, as St. Paul tells us, can, 
and often does, transform himself into an 
angel of light, and produce in the mind false 
ights, which dazzle and blind it. 


154 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Now that you know in what the essence 
of piety consists, you ought to learn in what 
faculty of the soul it resides, and this knowledge 
will preserve you from many illusions, and 
point out to you the direction in which you 
must advance in order to attain your end. 

Piety, should, by its divine influence, pene¬ 
trate all the faculties of the soul and take 
possession of your whole being; it ought, as we 
have said above, to make its presence espe¬ 
cially felt in your heart, by purifying all its 
affections; but its principal abode should be in 
the will, through wdiich it may reach all the 
other faculties in order to elevate and vivify 
them. 

The will is, indeed, if I may so speak, the 
organ or the instrument of sacrifice and duty; 
and since piety properly consists in sacrifice 
and duty, in suppressing the inordinate 
appetites of the human heart, and elevating 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


155 


nature above herself, the will is the faculty in 
which piety should reside. 

It is not an easy matter to be truly pious, 
for, in order to attain to a superior order of 
spiritual perfection, we must lay aside self 
which paralyzes all the generous movements 
of the soul,—we must also faithfully correspond 
to divine grace. All this entails much diffi¬ 
culty, many struggles, and, consequently, great 
and constant efforts. 

Every being has a tendency, founded on an 
imperious instinct, to dwell in its natural 
sphere, which it can not leave even to enter a 
superior one without making a great effort. 
Hence, the Holy Ghost warns him who desires 
to serve God to prepare for temptation and 
struggle. Now, among all the faculties of the 
soul, the will is the best disposed for the 
combat, because pleasure has a smaller share 
in its movements than in those of the heart 


156 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and imagination; it is able, when necessary, to 
rise superior to the most alluring charms, 
preferring fidelity to duty with all its difficulties 
and bitterness. 

To be pious implies the faithful observance 
of God’s commandments, u If you love me,” 
says Christ, 11 keep my commandments it 
consists in being resigned to the will of God, 
ready to be disposed of at His good pleasure. 
To do this you must place all your faculties, 
and especially your will at His disposal. God 
has reserved to Himself the right of acting in 
an intimate and profound manner upon the 
will. This faculty is His sanctuary, in which 
He delights to dwell, and operate the prodigies 
of His grace and love, which He communicates 
wfith unbounded prodigality to His elect. 

This is the throne upon which He silently 
engraves the image of His divine Son, the 
essential characteristic of predestination. It 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


157 


is in this power of the human soul that He 
plants in the depth of Christian humility the 
foundation of solid virtue, in defiance to the 
disorders of the mind, the agitations of the 
heart and the incoherencies of the memory. 

From the bosom of the Divinity our Blessed 
Lord brought with Him two special favors, 
one of which was for His eternal Father, and 
the other to be given persons of good-will. 
He charged His angels to announce them 
to the world in the person of the shep¬ 
herds. They were, glory for His Father and 
peace for men, but only for men of good-will. 
This heavenly peace is a foretaste of the never- 
ending joys of Paradise. It is a prize worth 
striving for, and easy to secure, at least for you, 
since it is promised to all persons of good-will. 


158 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER XII. 

VOCATION. 

IlSpE*’ who has created all things by His own 
jyS power, conserves them by an act of His 
divine love; and by His providence leads them 
to their appointed destiny through ways con¬ 
formable to their own nature. He did not create 
man to live a solitary being, and, consequently, 
implanted in his heart an instinctive need of 
society; desiring that the latter should effectively 
contribute to the development of the faculties 
of soul and body. And, as society cannot 
subsist without a certain variety of conditions, 
and functions, which lend each other mutual 
aid, He has planted in our souls certain dis¬ 
positions in harmony with the particular state 
of life to which He has destined us. This is 
what is called vocation. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


159 


It is, as you perceive, only a particular form 
of that general providence by which God gov¬ 
erns the universe, giving to the lilies their 
eclat and perfume, watching with maternal care 
over the young brood, preparing its food for 
the little bird, and not allowing a single hair 
to fall from our heads without His permission. I 
purposely make use of the beautiful images that 
Jesus Himself employed to reveal to us the 
sweet mystery of providence. 

To deny that man has a special vocation is 
placing him in a rank inferior to the plants and 
irrational animals. It is denying the variety of 
dispositions which enter into the combination of 
character, and which is at once one of the greatest 
charms of and most precious advantages to 
society; it is forcing on the mind the convic¬ 
tion that every one is free to choose, whether in 
or out of season, his post in the world, even 
when such a course would be contrary to the 


160 


SERIOUS HOURS 


principles of common-sense, and would entail 
the subversion of society; for, let each and 
every one be directed in the choice of his post 
by the whims and caprices of nature, assuredly 
society will soon become demoralized, even as 
an army in which each soldier would be free 
to choose and take the grade and position 
that best suited his tastes. 

If society is kept in a constant feverish 
agitation, by the furious contests of un¬ 
governed passion, it is because no one, or 
at least the vast number never take the trouble 
to consult God by prayer, or otherwise, before 
making a choice of a state of life. If there 
are so many dissatisfied with their state of life 
it is because they are not where God had destined 
them to be. If life is blighted with deception, 
fraught with regrets and bitterness, if our fairest 
hopes are blasted, if pain and sorrow brood over 
our existence, it is because the soul suffers the 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


161 


punishment entailed by her levity or negligence 
in a matter on which her weal or woe depends, 
both for time and eternity. 

Oh, how sadly rare in the world is that 
sweet and celestial peace, that interior content¬ 
ment, that pure and simple joy which in holier 
times families prized as their most precious 
inheritance; and which they handed down to 
their posterity as one of their richest gifts: 
then the thought of God and eternity presided 
over all the important actions of their life; 
then the light of heaven was invoked when 
there was question of any important under¬ 
taking ; and as grave matters were considered 
and weighed in the light of truth and religion, 
due attention was paid to the choice of a 
state of life. 

They knew that, while other proceedings 
might be changed, and consequently their 
fatal result averted when foreseen, the step 


162 


SERIOUS HOURS 


made in the choice of a state of life is irre¬ 
vocable and a mistake made in that step 
not only involves our happiness or misery 
for time but also for eternity. Hence it 
is said by many that vocation is closely allied 
with predestination. 

It is a most solemn moment in the Christian’s 
life, for it is the beginning of that road by which 
he must attain his destination. At this junc¬ 
ture it is consoling to consider with the eye 
of faith, the love and solicitude with which 
God protects the soul; to behold Jesus offer¬ 
ing with ineffable tenderness for her the blood 
which He shed on the cross. To see the guar¬ 
dian angel redoubling his charitable efforts in 
the interest of his client, awaiting with pious 
anxiety the issue of a deliberation upon which 
must depend in a great measure the success or 
failure of his labors for her eternal salvation. 

Still, should any one be so unfortunate as to 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


163 


make a bad choice, let him not consider his 
condition irremediable; divine mercy has inex¬ 
haustible resources from which to provide us 
with the means to work out our salvation, and 
prevent the doleful consequences of those fatal 
errors. 

Yet, it is certain beyond all question, that 
we render the work of our eternal salvation 
always more difficult when we have not em¬ 
braced that state of life which God had laid 
out for us; for the sins which are a conse¬ 
quence of this want of correspondence to the 
divine will, will have, if not a decisive influ¬ 
ence, at least a considerable share in the work 
of our reprobation. How many souls now 
writhing in eternal torments could, on ascend¬ 
ing the course of their lives, point out the 
solemn moment in which they made a choice 
of a state of life as the time of their depar¬ 
ture from the road to heaven. 


164 


SERIOUS HOURS 


No Christian who has his salvation at 
heart will hesitate to say that it is folly to 
treat with indifference and levity a matter of 
such vital importance; for he must remember 
with a sacred awe that, when he makes a 
choice of a state of life, he pronounces in a cer¬ 
tain manner an irrevocable sentence on himself. 

When the soul is deprived of the advantages 
of a rule of life, of the advantages of good 
dispositions, character and temperament, as 
well as of those provided by circumstances, 
men and things on the one hand; and when 
she is obliged to struggle incessantly against 
herself and external obstacles on the other hand, 
the work of her salvation becomes more diffi¬ 
cult and less certain. In this deplorable con¬ 
dition, the only pillar left her on which she can 
anchor her hopes of salvation is the mercy of 
God; but then a faithful correspondence with 
divine grace in the most minute details, constant 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


165 


and persevering prayer to obtain strength to bear 
the trials of life with profit, are positively 
necessary conditions to escape destruction. 

Commencing her career, woman finds for 
the most part only two roads that dispute the 
choice of her adoption. Estranged, generally 
speaking, to the professional life, or at least, 
acting in it only a secondary role, she scarcely 
gives it a serious thought; she can therefore 
give all due deliberation to her choice between 
marriage and celibacy. 

If all were bound to choose the more perfect 
state, considered in itself, the question would be 
easily settled, as in that case there would be, pro¬ 
perly speaking, no choice to make ; for evidently 
it is the celibate state of life that should be 
adopted, since it is a more perfect state than 
that of marriage; and the church, maintaining 
the doctrine of the Apostle on this point, has 
condemned as heretics those who teach that the 


166 


SERIOUS HOURS 


married state is as perfect as that of virginity. 
But, if all should aspire to perfection, if all are 
free to choose the kind of life that will better 
insure the attaining of that perfection, then all 
are not obliged to embrace the celibate state* 
since our perfection consists in doing God’s will. 

When you are about to make a choice of a 
state of life, you are not only permitted, but 
even urged, to take into consideration your 
dispositions and aptitudes for the state which 
you propose to embrace; and, if they are in 
good accord with it, you may safely conjecture 
that they were given you for that state of life. 
Your imperative duty consists in distinguish¬ 
ing between the call given by God and the 
voice of passion or prejudice. Hence you 
should promptly and faithfully follow the 
attractions and dispositions that God has given 
you, and nothing else. 

If for instance, a woman made her choice 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


167 


with a view of pandering to her vanity, 
curiosity, worldly love, or some other passion 
still more culpable perhaps, God would have 
no part in her determinations, and she would 
inevitably become the dupe of her own folly; 
for God gives light only to such as are sin¬ 
cere in their search for it, and they who look 
for it in this way are such as those, who, in 
examining the question of their vocation, 
have chiefly in view the glory of God and 
their own salvation. 

If the natural dispositions should be taken 
into consideration, it is not indeed with a view 
to flatter nature and avoid the struggles inci¬ 
dent to the Christian life. That would be 
renouncing the glorious title of Christian, and 
the incomparable favor that God has conferred 
upon us in creating us to live with Him forever. 
If it is useful to consult our taste and aptitude 
it is because they are for the most part in- 


168 


SERIOUS HOURS 


dicative of God’s will; hence we ought to 
employ them for the purpose for which He 
gave them to us. Then the object of your 
researches in this matter should be to dis¬ 
cover God’s will in that state of life for which 
He has given you a pronounced taste and 
aptitude; hut, because the caprice of nature 
or character may sometimes be taken for 
that taste and aptitude, you are not altogether 
safe from deception without some other 
guarantee. 

It frequently happens that man believes to 
be an inspiration from God what is only the 
effect of badly-regulated passion or some bad 
habit deeply rooted in the soul. In order to 
be sure that God has given such a disposition 
or aptitude of the heart and mind as being 
indicative of the state of life He would have 
us enter, it should be possessed of the following 
conditions, namly : The sanction of time, which 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


169 


is the instrument that God ordinarily employs 
to stamp the impress of His will on the works 
that He operates in us. It is necessary that 
this disposition has been constant, that is to say, 
that it has not suffered from frequent or long 
interruptions. A transitory taste appearing 
to-day and vanishing to-morrow, a volatile 
inclination frequently appearing and just as 
frequently disappearing, merits no considera¬ 
tion in an affair that involves the Christian’s 
happiness both for time and eternity. 

However, if the aptitude which you feel in 
your soul for a given state of life has lost much 
of its vivacity, or even when it should have 
frequently vanished in the course of your life; 
you are in duty bound to study the causes 
and circumstances of this change, especially 
when, with the disappearence of that inclina¬ 
tion, piety and fervor in God’s service have 
£Lso diminished in the soul. 


170 


SERIOUS HOURS 


If, as often as you. felt the sweet impulse of 
divine grace in prayer and holy communion 
this inclination became also aroused in the soul; 
if you felt it increase in proportion as you gave 
yourself to God, you may safely conclude that 
it is the indicator of God’s will in your regard, 
and that its vascillating or enfeebled condition 
was the work of your own perverse will. Hence* 
in order to ascertain whether the natural incli¬ 
nation or aptitude you feel for any state of life 
is from God or the effect of a deluded fancy, 
you need but compare your natural aptitude 
with those you have received through divine 
grace; and if you find them in perfect accord 
you may rest assured that they are from God, 
for He is the author of nature as well as of 
grace. On the contrary, should they disagree 
then you may safely conclude that your natural 
desire or inclination is a delusion. 

This last consideration should not be omitted, 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


171 


especially when there is question of embracing 
the religious life; for the attraction by which 
we feel ourselves drawn to a more perfect life 
is in itself a gift of God, and one of His most 
precious gifts. As often as this attraction 
reveals its presence in the heart, it singularly 
involves the study of vocation. Hence, it is a 
most delicate and perilous matter to deal with, 
for if this attraction comes from God and if the 
soul repels it she prepares for herself lamenta¬ 
ble delusions, and a life fraught with bitterness 
and remorse. God has a reason for frequently 
saying in the Sacred Scriptures that He is 
a jealous God, and the church, for the same 
reason, addresses Jesus in the litanies, jealous 
of souls. 

Hence, after having shown the greatest 
preference for a soul, in honoring her with the 
exalted dignity of being His spouse, adorning 
her with the gorgeous splendor of His richest 


172 


SERIOUS HOURS 


treasures, and then see Himself basely rejected, 
or treated with cold indifference; His divine 
justice should naturally revenge the insult; 
which is done by delivering her into her own 
hands, the most cruel punishment that could 
be inflicted on her. 

However, if you feel an attraction for the 
religious life, it would be imprudent and rash 
on your part to decide the matter yourself. 
You should, in the spirit of humility, after 
having consulted God by prayer, consult some 
enlightened persons noted for their wisdom and 
prudence, piety and learning, who will advise 
you with a view to secure the spiritual welfare 
of your soul above all things. Should those 
to whom you address yourself fail to give all 
the assurance you should have, be not back¬ 
ward in consulting others; for unlimited con¬ 
fidence in the words of any man, no matter 
who he may be, will not dispense you from 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 173 

all responsibility before God, nor preserve you 
from making a wrong choice. 

Neither should you lose sight of, or derogate 
in the least, from the respect and obedience you 
owe your parents. It is their sacred duty and 
right to advise you ; and to whom should 
you look for a more disinterested advice ? A 
young girl would indeed be an object of pity 
if, instead of finding a truly Christian ten¬ 
derness in her parents, they would be her 
idolizers so far as to be blinded to her true 
interests. It is for this blind and foolish 
love that many parents sacrifice their chil¬ 
dren, either by ignoring their just claims to 
embrace the religious life, or by opposing an 
advantagous marriage through vanity or per¬ 
sonal interest. 


174 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTEK XIII. 

A SERIOUS MIND. 

VAST number of people unfortunately 
UlSUl labor under the false impression that 
woman’s great work and duty consists in 
making her company agreeable and pleasing to 
all. This error is most prejudicial to woman ; it 
is opposed to the teachings of religion and the 
Holy Scriptures; and nevertheless it is only too 
true that a countless number of women have 
sedulously labored for its propagation, or, at 
least, they hav£ proved by their actions that 
this is their only work; and in many places, 
to the great detriment of society, the education 
of girls has been directed in a great measure 
according to this false opinion. 

They are taught to esteem graceful manners, 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


175 


elegance of deportment, flashy humor, affa¬ 
bility of character, and unlimited condes¬ 
cension as being the elements of a finished 
education ; and the precious days of childhood 
with the more precious time of adolescence 
have been entirely absorbed to acquire it. 

This is the school that has given birth to 
what is called “ Arts of Pleasure ,” to which 
it sacrifices the knowledge of more necessary 
things which instruct the mind, fortify the 
heart, and invigorate the will. Our compas¬ 
sion and disgust are simultaneously aroused, 
when we see so many women whose education 
has given them no other knowledge than to 
teach them how to flatter the taste of others at 
the expense of Christian modesty. 

How many women there are who, from their 
youth, have renounced the dignity and glorious 
privileges of their sex, calmly resigning them¬ 
selves to play the inferior and humiliating role 


176 


SERIOUS HOURS 


that the prejudices and passions of a frivolous 
society impose upon them ! 

It is our heart-felt desire that you may never 
experience anything of the kind; suffer not 
the aureola with which God has decorated your 
brow to be ruthlessly removed and trampled 
under foot. Eemember that your soul is just 
as noble as that of man; that it is illuminated 
by the same faith, drawn towards heaven by 
the same hopes, and united to the same Author 
of all greatness and of all life by the same 
charity. Should your belief in this waver, 
transport yourself in spirit to Calvary: there 
you will see that women were the only sympa¬ 
thizers of Jesus, and, while hanging on the 
cross, women were, with the exception of St. 
John, the only witnesses of His death. 

The apostles and disciples, all had fled; and 
in this memorable scene in which all things 
seem to be confounded courage and valor 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


177 


seemed to have taken refuge in the soul of 
women. Hence the Church records, with love 
and gratitude, on the brightest pages of her 
history, this noble and generous act of devoted¬ 
ness as being the special privilege of your sex, 
since it was won on the ever-memorable day of 
our redemption. 

It is not easy to look a painful truth in the 
face; but we are forced to do so when we 
reluctantly confess that female frivolity is the 
source of that levity which prevails nowa¬ 
days, to such an extent as to affect the very 
laws and government of society. To keep 
aloof from this poisonous atmosphere, you 
must cultivate that serious turn of mind, that 
gravity which gives women an air of majesty, 
and wins the homage of those who do not 
even understand her. 

Experience will teach you that the impor¬ 
tance attached to the seriousness with which 


178 


SERIOUS HOURS 


woman’s life should be enveloped is under¬ 
valued. Learn to appreciate it as it merits; 
show that appreciation by now giving to all 
the actions of your life that weight and 
gravity which shall render them agreeable to 
God. 

To succeed in your good resolution great 
firmness is required; you will be obliged to 
condemn the frivolity of young persons in 
whose company circumstances may throw you. 
You must set your face against the fashions of 
the world, against the force of habit and pre¬ 
judice, perhaps against the freaks of your own 
character. But remember that the reward 
awaiting you is well worth the struggle you 
are asked to sustain; and this struggle will 
not be so difficult as you may think, if you 
face it courageously, coherently and persever- 
ingly, employing, of course, the proper means. 

To begin, you should cast overboard that 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


179 


inclination to frivolity wherever you meet 
with it. But since a bad plant is more quickly 
and radically destroyed by pulling it out of the 
roots than by simply lopping of the tops as 
they appear over ground, so do we likewise 
succeed better in correcting a bad habit, or 
destroying an evil inclination by attacking it at 
its source than by being satisfied with arrest¬ 
ing its bad effects, allowing the cause to remain. 
And since it is in the mind that frivobty takes 
up its abode, it is there that it must be sought 
for and destroyed. 

There exists among the different faculties of 
the soul a certain order, a species of hier¬ 
archy which gives a certain preponderance to 
some of them over the others; consequently 
some of them are of an inferior while others 
are of a superior order. You will labor in 
vain to give a serious cast to your sentiments 
and actions if you feed your mind on frivolous 


180 


SERIOUS HOURS 


thoughts, while serious thoughts are the pro¬ 
genitors of enduring affections and noble deeds. 
Hence the culture of the mind is an important 
factor to the acquisition of a taste for those 
things which are the true ornament of woman. 
Sentiments are the outcomings of thoughts, 
and both together are expressed by actions. 

Feed your intelligence with serious thoughts; 
never amuse it with those trifles which absorb 
the attention of persons of your age. Do not 
think that those serious thoughts badly become 
your youth; that they would deprive you of a 
part of your comfort, rendering you wearisome 
to others and insupportable to yourself; that 
they would give you a pedantic and affected 
air which would lead others to believe that 
you despised them; that every age has its 
peculiar tastes and customs, and that it would 
be an act of uncalled-for severity to exact from 
a young person just beginning, so to say, the 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


181 


apprenticeship of life, a gravity of manners and 
dispositions that would scarcely be required ot 
a maturer age. 

Seriousness is required in all ages, but not 
always in the same degree. Thus the gravity 
befitting a young lady is very different from 
that expected from a woman more advanced in 
years. This virtue, far from excluding legiti¬ 
mate amusement and pleasure, only regulates 
and elevates them by confining them to just 
limits. An agreeable and lively turn may be 
given to the most serious things, rendering 
them pleasing and acceptable to the minds 
of all. 

Truth is never subtle, and never darkens the 
soul in which it resides ; on the contrary, it 
sheds a halo of light around her, revealing all 
those interior movements which lend a sweet 
and amiable charm to every action. 

You would be the first to condemn the doc- 

F 


182 


SERIOUS HOURS. 


trine of those who maintain that woman must 
be of a frivolous turn of mind in order to be 
agreeable. You would justly regard, as an 
outrage to your sex, such assertions as go to 
show that seriousness can have no place in the 
mind of woman. Such being the case, you 
will not say, with many of your age, that the 
time will come soon enough to feed your soul 
with solid substantial food; and that the age of 
serious thoughts will come only too soon; nor 
will you close your eyes to the fact, taught by 
long experience, that every one must reap in 
riper years such fruit as they had sown in 
youth. If you wait till then, it will be too late 
for you to enter another groove and form new 
habits. If you are now frivolous in your 
thoughts and sentiments you will be so later; 
for, as age fortifies the tastes and inclina¬ 
tions, frivolity must increase as you advance 
in years. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


183 


Perhaps facts of this nature have already 
fallen under your notice; you must have met 
with old ladies whose levity so painfully con¬ 
trasts with the gravity that becomes their age ; 
and, while it is not permitted us to judge 
others, yet every good Christian must be 
shocked at this contrast. Profit by their 
example, sad as it is, and hasten to conclude 
that it is folly to defer to a future time what 
can and should be done at present; and that 
defects, as well as virtue, are fortified by time 
and habit. If your early education has not 
been truly Christian, if the teachings of divine 
faith have not yet rendered you familiar with 
the most serious things of life, you might 
perhaps consider as difficult, or even imprac¬ 
ticable, the counsels that I give you now. 

Is there anything more serious or more in 
opposition to our natural inclinations, and at 
the same time less consistent with the deplor- 


184 


SERIOUS HOURS 


able levity of our minds, than the truths of 
our holy religion ? For serious, indeed, must be 
the reflections that those truths inspire, which 
you should now learn to meditate seriously, in 
order to make them a life-long practice. Is it 
not a serious occupation of the mind to think 
of God, of the salvation of your soul, the 
briefness of life, eternity which follows it, the 
duties that religion imposes upon you ? Is it 
not a serious occupation to address God in 
holy prayer, to descend into the secret folds of 
your conscience, and examine all your actions 
in the light of the gospel; to reveal in all 
your works the sacred character that you have 
received in baptism; to lead a life according 
to the spirit of faith, and not according to 
the spirit of the world—for, if there is no 
difference between your conduct and that 
of worldlings, to what purpose will the title 
of Christian avail you ? All this is a serious 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


185 


work, and requires a serious mind to accom¬ 
plish it. 

The practice of Christian virtues supposes 
and develops at the same time the love of 
seriousness. This love does not increase in a 
superficial soul; while it is entirely sterile 
in a frivolous mind. Remember that you 
have now attained the age between childhood 
and womanhood, when it is no longer lawful 
to be amused by trifles, and when you are 
called upon to prepare for austere duties 
which you must, ere long, discharge. 

You have now come to that period of life 
at which you must determine your final 
future course; hence you have need of a 
serious mind and will to guide you securely 
in the choice of the road, as also to pave it 
with those virtues which in the end will form 
your most precious treasures. This road 
will be such as you have made it, narrow 


186 


SERIOUS HOURS 


or wide, level or rough, according to the pains 
and labor that you have expended in pre¬ 
paring it. 

If you hearken to the voice of reason, and 
wish to profit by the lessons of wisdom, you 
will not squander a most precious time in vain 
amusements ; you will neither step to the right 
nor to the left, but continue right on in the 
way of stern duty. The world’s siren charms 
will have no attraction for you, as their bitter 
fruits would extort from you bitter regrets for 
having so little profited by the most precious 
time of your life. 

Oh, how sorrowful the old age of women 
who have never nourished their minds other¬ 
wise than with frivolous thoughts: finding 
neither in themselves nor in society any means 
to dispel the gloom that envelops them, and 
not being able to enlist the sympathy of the 
world which abandons and despises them 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


187 


they are condemned to eke out a miserable 
existence in the disgust and wearisomeness of 
a sombre solitude. 

To a serious woman, on the contrary, old 
age lends a peculiar charm which renders her 
company agreeable to, and sought for, by all 
serious minds. Her conversation and man¬ 
ners still possess all the blitheness, freshness 
and vivacity of youth. Her steady lightsome 
gaze, tempered by a benignant and reflective 
mind, lends her an air of amiability and 
majesty. Her language is instructive, her 
counsels encouraging, while her reproaches 
arouse the heart to a sense of duty. She has 
friends wherever she is known, friends who 
revere and respect, without idolizing her. In 
her youth she never pandered to flattery, now, 
old, she shall not experience ingratitude. The 
friends she earned by her sterling worth will 
recall to her mind the happy souvenirs of her 


188 


SERIOUS HOURS 


youth, even up to the last days of her life ; 
for her years bear with them all their primi¬ 
tive charms which can never decline under 
the influence of time, because the thoughts 
and affections that produced and preserved 
them are now what they were, solid and 
grave. And while the companions of her youth 
languish and fret in their sad isolation, she, 
always the same, sees herself surrounded 
by a multitude, anxious to profit by her expe¬ 
rience. 

If you have learned to be serious in youth, 
you shall enjoy an agreeable old age; but 
if the former be stamped with levity and 
frivolity, the latter shall be fraught with 
sorrow and desolation. Do not count on 
the charms of youth, it is a flower that shall 
very soon fade, and like a bird on the wing, 
shall leave no trace behind it. The lustre of 
your eyes now beaming delight shall soon 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


189 


grow dull; the bloom shall depart from your 
cheek; the bright hopes that now fill your 
soul shall give place to sad souvenirs; 
and your heart which is now the abode 
of delight shall then be harrowed with 
sorrow and woe. To-day you are flattered 
and praised, then you shall be a castaway, 
abandoned. All that will remain to you is 
God and your soul, with whom you had never 
learned to converse or commune. Oh, sad, 
indeed, is the old age of a frivolous youth! 


190 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER XIY. 


CHOICE OF COMPANIONS. 



fgjfgESTCE a predisposition to good and evil is 


found among persons of all classes and 
ages ; and as this predisposition is especially 
strong at your age, when the sympathies are 
most tender, when the heart so candid and 
open is ready to receive and reciprocate those 
secret emanations that escape from the souls 
of loved ones; you require to take more than 
ordinary precautions, since the danger to 
which these circumstances expose you is 
indeed very great, and requires a prudence 
superior to your years,—you must therefore 
look for it in the advice of others, but more 
especially in that of your mother who should 
be your first adviser in all things. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


191 


How many women owe to the examples 
and deceptive lessons of a so-called friend, the 
bitterness that corrodes their hearts, and the 
remorse which perhaps torments their life! 
We pass over in silentse those societies the 
evident danger of which is easily perceived, and 
on that account easily averted; but you have 
not the same guarantee against the noxious 
effects which arise from those relations whose 
union is found in the most frivolous instincts 
of the heart, to which access is gained by 
the feeblest faculties of the soul. What is it 
that is most commonly found in those inti¬ 
macies, if not thoughts without consistency, 
vain hopes, precocious or impatient desires, 
indiscreet confidence, imprudent language, rash 
questions and answers rasher still ? 

As a general rule, any society or company 
from which you derive no benefit for head or 
heart is, if not dangerous, at least pernicious; 


192 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and you ought to shun them unless that impera¬ 
tive reasons or the will of your parents advise 
otherwise; for all that tends to diminish your 
esteem for the value of time and for the 
love of serious things is prejudicial to your 
soul. You should prefer your mother’s com¬ 
pany to that of all others. Her life should be as 
a book constantly open before you ; her lessons 
and examples, her experience and counsels 
should be an inexhaustible mine of instruction, 
useful and precious to your soul. 

The young lady is indeed an object of com¬ 
passion who feels her mother’s company 
irksome and onerous. At your age the heart 
is confiding and effusive, and it needs some 
bosom in which to repose its confidence; for it 
would be subjecting it to an ordeal too rude, 
and exposing it perhaps to a fatal reaction, 
by completely depriving it of consolations 
derived from acquaintances approved by every 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


193 


law, human and divine. It should be treated 
with moderation, founded on prudence, as 
undue severity renders its desires and needs 
more imperative. 

But if it is dangerous to restrict the heart 
to silence and inaction it is much more dan¬ 
gerous to feed it on frivolous affections. There 
is nothing that exhausts its energies so much 
as an over-indulgence in those puerile senti¬ 
ments fed by the imagination. Those sentiments 
create within it a void which nothing can fill, 
and destroy its love for everything that is noble 
and generous. 

A frivolous heart is not less disastrous to 
woman than is a frivolous mind. How many 
women find themselves disarmed and power¬ 
less in important circumstances of life, for 
having neglected in youth the training of the 
heart’s affections ! How many are unequal 
to the task of discharging a painful duty, be- 


194 


SERIOUS HOURS 


cause they were wont to seek their pleasure in 
all they did from early childhood ! How many 
who, spite of the chastisement of adversity 
and deception incurred by their idolizing pre¬ 
ference for their levity and affections, still 
remain the dupes of their blind attachment 
even in their old age ! Your esteem for your 
own heart, and appreciation for its affections, 
should be highly noteworthy, and deeply 
graven in your mind by the constant habit of 
prizing them. 

When you feel an attraction for a young 
person of your own age, do not blindly obey 
it, before having maturely studied its nature 
and motives. We should always act for a 
purpose worthy of ourselves, but more espe¬ 
cially so when there is question of delivering 
ourselves over to the confidence and friend¬ 
ship of others; for in this mutual exchange we 
dispose of the greater part of our being. In 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


195 


this intimate relation, which is formed insen¬ 
sibly by repeated interviews, there is formed a 
reciprocal discernment that exercises a power¬ 
ful influence over all the faculties of the soul, 
the convictions of the minds, the sentiments 
of the heart, the habits of character, and often 
even over the general deportment. 

The good sense of our fathers has expressed 
this truth by one of those proverbs so familiar 
to them : u Tell me your company and I 
know who you are!' Of course you have 
frequently heard those words, and knowing 
their meaning withal, perhaps you have not 
considered the circumstances wherein they 
may be applied. We earnestly wish that they 
may never be employed relative to you, at the 
expense of the joy of your heart or the peace 
of your conscience. 

You should use much discretion in the 
choice that you make of the person with whom 


196 


SERIOUS HOURS 


you would form an intimate acquaintance; 
for such an intimacy is not only founded on a 
mutual confidence, and reciprocal affections; 
it is also the result which follows from being 
frequently in each other’s company. This latter 
intimacy is more dangerous than the former 
because the heart, not thinking itself inter¬ 
ested, is less upon its guard, and consequently 
more exposed to suffer from the poison con¬ 
cealed in words and examples. 

Be assured of the nature of the attraction you 
feel. See if it is founded upon solid qualities, 
capable of making an impression upon an 
upright and serious mind, or upon those 
superficial qualities which the world esteems, 
and which allure volatile minds. In the latter 
case, you cannot, without danger, engage in 
relations; the inevitable effect of which must 
be either to fortify your present defects, or add 
to them others which you have not at present. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


197 


If your love for any one be founded on 
trivial motives, and if you dispense yourself 
from the obligation of restraining your affec¬ 
tions, let me entreat you to take at least all 
the precautions that prudence requires to pre¬ 
vent you from becoming the dupe of a foolish 
fondness. But if your affections are founded 
on sympathy of character, on a concurrence of 
holy thoughts and sentiments, with a view to 
strengthen the love and practice of virtue; 
then the attainment of their object is highly 
commendable and praiseworthy; and you may 
justly hope to secure the happiest results from 
it. But even then, you should be on your 
guard against your own judgment, placing a 
certain restraint on your sentiments of confi¬ 
dence and love, or friendship, which, in order 
to be lasting, must be calm, devoid of that 
impetuosity which acts violently on the heart. 
It should be the work of time, shedding its 


198 


SERIOUS HOURS 


sweet influence on the duties of life, rendering 
their accomplishment less laborious and more 
fruitful. 

Those who love each other with a sincere 
Christian affection, willingly sacrifice to duty 
the pleasure of being together, or rather their 
great pleasure consists in doing God’s will ; 
with noble courage they rise superior to all 
other considerations, and mutually inspire 
each other with a holy zeal, imposing silence 
upon the voice of their affections, in presence 
of the voice of their conscience. 

Such is the manner in which persons 
should love each other; such are the affections 
that God blesses and rewards. You are 
deeply indebted to Divine Providence if it has 
sent you one whom you can love in this way, 
for this is one of the most precious gifts of 
God’s mercy. It is especially at your age 
that such friendships are most easily formed, 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 199 

because then the heart is more tender and 
confiding. How many women owe, in a great 
measure, their peace of mind and conscience 
to the good advice and protecting influence of 
a friend whom they met with in the spring¬ 
time of life. 

There are in woman’s life many delicate and 
trying circumstances that demand the inter¬ 
vention of a sincere friend, to direct and 
sustain her, when the light of conscience 
becomes obscured or extinct; when the ener¬ 
gies of the heart succumb to the allurements 
of pleasure; when the mind, embarrassed by 
doubt and perplexity, can scarcely distinguish 
the line of duty, semi-obliterated by prejudice 
and passion; happy, then, is the woman who 
can call upon a faithful and tried friend, to 
whom she can confide the secrets of her heart, 
and from whom she may hope to receive the 
help and consolation that her condition calls for. 


200 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER XV. 


TOILET. 



|X undue attention to toilet is a danger- 


ous rock for many women who, other¬ 
wise remarkable for their grave deportment, 
are sometimes greater slaves than the most 
frivolous women to dress and fashion. It is 
truly a great misery to be taken up with 
undue solicitude for the fragile and perishable 
part of our being; but more especially so, 
when such preference is given it by minds 
which are otherwise noble and elevated. It is 
painful to be obliged to confess that many 
women of high and cultivated attainments 
spend a considerable portion of their life in 
this futile occupation. It seems incredible 
that a ribbon-knot, the color of a robe, or the 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


201 


form of a head-dress, could become a capital 
matter for an intelligent creature destined to 
contemplate with the angels of heaven the 
majesty of God. 

If there are so few women who enjoy all the 
advantages of their happy dispositions and 
attainments, it is because of their inordinate 
love for toilet and fashion; for nothing narrows 
the mind or contracts the heart so much as 
excessive care of the body. When they neglect 
the soul, the noblest part of man, she revenges 
herself of the insult by concealing all her bril¬ 
liant qualities, which alone constitute woman’s 
true beauty and adornment. 

It is impossible for a vain or gaudy woman 
to converse on any serious matter, but she 
will talk for whole hours on the form or quality 
of a dress; should the conversation happen 
to turn on a serious subject, capable of engag¬ 
ing the attention of an elevated mind, her 


202 


SERIOUS HOURS 


countenance will soon betray a sense of dissat 
isfaction and weariness. 

Give befitting attention to the care of your 
body, because it is the temple of God, who has 
deposited therein a precious germ of immor¬ 
tality. But at the same time, keep it in its 
own place ; and since it is the inferior part of 
your being do not allow it to infringe upon the 
rights and privileges of the soul, whose docile 
and obedient servant it should be. Avoid in 
your toilet all that savors of frivolity, which 
betray a desire to attract attention; but above 
all; avoid every thing that might in the least 
wound modesty. Do not forget that this virtue 
is one of the most beautiful ornaments of your 
sex, and that when woman is deprived of it 
she is like a faded flower, without eclat or 
perfume. You should conform to the cus¬ 
toms of your country and condition without 
being in any way their slave, remembering 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


203 


that your soul is at all times in duty bound 
to soar above all those futilities, and conserve 
by a noble independence, her glory and her 
majesty. 

Do not follow the example of those women 
who, slaves of the world, obey with blind 
docility all its caprices; seeking with avidity 
whatever is novel, in order to be the first in 
the fashion , and acquire by that, the vain re¬ 
putation of a woman of good taste. Those who 
believe themselves obliged to have recourse to 
the seductions of fashion and dress in order to 
attract the attention of their would-be admirers, 
give a sad manifestation of the emptiness of 
their minds and the depravity of th3ir hearts. 
Those who are distinguished for their noble 
qualities of head and heart attach their hopes 
to loftier claims; by their modesty and reserve 
they are pleasing to all, and the sentiments 
which they inspire, being always noble and 


204 


SERIOUS HOURS 


pure, never give the slightest annoyance to any 
one; on the contrary they arouse the holiest 
and most generous instincts of the soul. 

One of the sweetest charms that adorns your 
age is that which arises from its simplicity and 
candor. The world itself, so liberal in its judg¬ 
ments, will not pardon in you whatever savors 
of egotism and ostentation. In these and 
similar things it will avail you naught to offer 
for excuse custom and usage, behind which 
so many aged women try to take refuge. 
Profit, then, by the truce which the world in a 
measure concedes in favor of your modesty, to 
acquire the habit of simplicity in your dress 
and whole exterior. This simplicity, once 
acquired, will be your guarantee, later on, 
against the examples and seductions of the 
fashionable world, which shows as little defer¬ 
ence for the laws of good taste as for those of 
Christian modesty. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


205 


The beautiful and good are never in con¬ 
tradiction with each other. The same is true 
of what are perverse and depraved. And this 
is why the depravity of taste is in keeping 
with the standard of a people’s moral life. Be 
assured that there is nothing beautiful except 
what is true and good ; and that there is 
neither truth nor goodness in things devoid 
of simplicity. If you regulate your dress 
and whole exterior bearing according to these 
two principles you will stand irreproachable 
to your own conscience, and secure the respect 
and admiration of the most exacting world¬ 
lings, for simplicity of dress and manners 
possesses charms that win universal appro¬ 
bation. 

Never lose sight of your glorious title of 
Christian. Remember that on the day of your 
baptism you renounced the pomps and vanities 
of the world, and, if you are allowed to con- 


206 


SERIOUS HOURS 


form to customs not contrary to the maxims of 
the Gospel, you ought at the same time mani¬ 
fest in your dress, as in the rest, the glorious 
character that God has stamped in your soul. 
You should show by your conduct the striking 
contrast that exists between the Christian 
woman and the woman who, being incredulous 
or indifferent, does not draw her rule of life 
from the precepts of the Gospel, 

Your dress should be grave and modest: 
these are the characteristic marks by which it 
can be distinguished from that of women who 
are slaves of the world. St. Paul said to the 
Christians of his time: Let your modesty 
appear to all men , for the Lord is near you ! 
What a profound lesson there is in these words, 
and how strongly they set forth the motives 
for which a Christian should be modest. To 
put in practice this counsel of the Apostle, you 
must accustom yourself to walk in the presence 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


207 


of God, representing to yourself by a lively 
faith that God is near you, that He sees you 
and will demand a strict account one day from 
you of all your actions. Frequently call to 
mind what St. Paul said to the Corinthians, 
namely: that we are a spectacle to men and 
angels. Let the true sense of those words 
sink deeply into your heart, and it will enable 
you to regulate soul and body. 

The desire to attract attention, to draw the 
admiring gaze of fellow-beings is a weakness 
that lurks in every human heart; but with 
woman it seems to be the main-spring to all 
her actions, which is kept in motion alike by 
the applause and reproaches of spectators. In 
the light of faith all this is folly and vanity; 
for in that light we behold the whole court of 
heaven, God and His angels watching with an 
interest full of tenderness and solicitude not 
only our exterior actions, but even the secret 


208 


SEEiors Horas 


movements of our souls. Could we hare a 
better or more appreciative audience to wit¬ 
ness what we do ? The very thought of their 
presence should inspire ns with a disgust for 
those vain desires that urge ns to see and be 
seen by mankind in order to secure to our 
actions the approbation of the multitude. 
Regulate your conduct in this matter accord¬ 
ing to St. Paul’s instruction to Timothy : Let 
women be clothed in decent apparel , adorn¬ 
ing themselves icith modesty and sobriety , not 
with platted hair , or gold or pearls , or costly 
attire. But , as it becometh vjomen profess¬ 
ing godliness , unth good, tcorlcs. 

Moreover, you labor under a great mistake 
if you think that gaudiness in dress is neces¬ 
sary to render you attractive and inspire those 
sentiments of esteem and affection which some¬ 
times prepare the way to an advantageous 
alliance. Should you succeed by this means in 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


209 


securing such a marriage, be assured that you 
deceive yourself; for the man who, setting 
aside the qualities essential to woman, lets his 
affections be won by her outward charms only 
does her an injury, and prepares for her, as well 
as for himself, bitter regrets in the future. If 
you fully understand your true interest, both 
in this life and in the next, far from making 
your dress a means of attraction, you would 
tremble to owe to such vile contrivances the 
affection bestowed on you. You would not 
compel by your vanity those who love you for 
your own good to pander to your self-love and 
encourage your negligence. 

The sentiments that a woman awakens in 
the hearts of her admirers draw their worth 
from the motives that inspire them, and this 
being the case, what value shall you set upon 
affections determined by empty show, and 
flattered by qualities purely exterior, unworthy 


210 


SERIOUS HOURS 


of the attention of an intelligent being ? Still, 
for some unaccountable or visionary reason, the 
greater part of women attach excessive impor¬ 
tance to such puerile advantages, and neglect 
those that are capable of making a deep and 
lasting impression upon valiant and noble souls. 
If they are much depreciated in the esteem of 
those by whom they would like to be loved and 
admired, the cause may be traced to their own 
frivolity; let them labor with the same zeal to 
cultivate the heart and mind that they display 
upon external show, and they will more 
readily attract the attention of all who belong 
to refined and educated society. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


211 


CHAPTER XYI. 


DESIRE TO PLEASE. 


ffjjp^FT'ER having created man God saw that 
it was not good for him to be alone; 
and in order to console and cheer him in 
his solitude He took from his side, near his 
heart, the material out of which He made 
him a companion. This origin of woman 
tells us more of her nature, and points out 
more clearly the end that God proposed to 
Himself in creating her than the most elabor¬ 
ate and profound treatises or the most lucid 
theological theories. 


Man was made out of the slime of the earth, 
woman has been formed out of a body already 
organized and vivified by the breath of life; 
man has been created to reign over the world, 


212 


SERIOUS HOURS 


to govern the animals which God placed under 
his control, woman has been created to be 
man’s companion; to cheer him in his soli¬ 
tude, and share with him the power and gifts 
which he received from God. 

Hence it is quite natural that woman should 
feel in the depths of her heart a gnawing desire 
to please and be agreeable, for in that she only 
obeys the instinct of her nature. Still, woman 
would be abusing that instinct, and acting 
contrary to the designs of Providence, if she 
sought to please by means unworthy of her. 

Before plunging Adam into that mysterious 
sleep, God brought all the animals before him, 
that he might see and know the extent of his 
dominion. The sacred writer remarks, that 
among all those animals Adam did not find a 
single being that resembled himself. He could 
find in none of those animals a sociable com¬ 
panion, because none of them had a soul like 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


213 


his, and consequently, could not share in the 
sweet joy that arises from an interchange of 
thoughts and sentiments, which constitutes 
the charming pith of life. 

Many of them surpassed him in bodily 
strength, fleetness and agility, many attracted 
his attention by the beauty of their form, by 
their wonderful instinct and industry. And 
God, through His unbounded goodness, had 
planted in their very nature a desire or want 
of attachment, an instinctive gratitude and 
fidelity, such, that it seemed impossible to 
desire anything more exquisite of the kind. 
Still, with all these advantages, man was 
unsatisfied, he required a being like himself, 
possessing qualities superior to those found in 
irrational beings^ one with whom his intelli¬ 
gence and heart might commune. 

You must have already penetrated the pro¬ 
found sense of the words of the sacred historian 


214 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and obtained a clear knowledge of the end that 
God proposed to himself in creating woman. 
Yes, He has certainly willed that you should 
be a messenger of consolation and comfort; 
that your mission should be, not to please and 
flatter the senses, which the animals did for 
Adam before Eve was created, but to meet 
the wants of the mind and heart of man. 

Irrational beings suffice to please the senses 
and imagination; hence, if this is all that you 
propose to do, you put yourself in contradiction 
with the designs of God over you, and the 
grandeur of your destiny. You seem to say 
to God that it was not necessary for Him to 
create worn m, that man could dispense with 
her, because the animals subject to his empire 
sufficed to meet all the wants of his mind and 
heart. Do not debase and despise your noble 
nature by thus placing yourself in the same 
category with animals, which can have nothing 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


215 


in common with the duties of your sublime 
mission. 

The senses are blind, impetuous and change¬ 
able in their instincts ; inconstancy and change 
are so necessary to them, that, rather than be 
condemned to remain immutable, they readily 
quit a more agreeable object for another very 
inferior, simply to satisfy that need of change 
inherent to their nature. Hence the strongest 
protestations, the most assiduous attentions, 
and the most active devotedness, though truly 
sincere in themselves, but when founded on 
the senses, are like smoke that disappears, even 
as the material that produces it. You will not 
have the right even to blame those who may 
deceive you in this way, because it is not in 
the power of man to conserve for any notable 
length of time a sentiment produced by the 
senses, and which has received no higher 
sanction than that of the imagination. 


216 


SERIOUS HOURS 


The difference, however, between this abortive 
sentiment and a genuine one is so palpable 
and characteristic that it is impossible to be 
mistaken in them, unless that we wilfully close 
our eyes to the truth. But, alas! it must 
indeed be confessed that a vast number of 
women wish to be deceived, not only in their 
discernment of the sentiment by which they 
are actuated, but also in their preference for 
it. And through some unaccountable blind¬ 
ness, they fear every thing that might interfere 
with their cherished idol. They purposely 
shut their eyes to the light of truth, pre¬ 
ferring to deceive and be deceived than to 
be obliged, on seeing the matter in its true 
light, to doubt the power of their frivolous 
charms ; as a proof of this the least compliment 
paid them for their beautiful or handsome 
appearance puts them beside themselves so 
far as to make them forget to consider whether 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 217 

such compliments are authorized by sincerity 
or flattery. 

In vain will you try to convince them that 
this is not the way in which a genuine senti¬ 
ment is formed and manifested. It is useless 
to tell them that such a sentiment does not 
spring up suddenly in the heart; that, on the 
contrary, its development is due to the process 
of a constant and almost insensible growth; 
being characteristically modest, calm, reserved, 
and even timid; having God for its first con¬ 
fidential friend, and pure souls for its tutors. 
It is labor in vain to point out to them that 
an affection, unaccompanied by the necessary 
precautions, should be repelled by a young 
lady as an insult to the dignit}’ of her sex. 
But they will readily listen to any language 
that flatters their vanity, which paves the way 
to so many fatal friendships that often entail a 
lifetime of woe and sorrow. 


G 


218 


SERIOUS HOURS 


When necessity or propriety requires your 
presence in society, somewhat brilliant, where 
you must inevitably come in contact with 
young men whom perhaps you do not know; 
then you should guard the senses, the mind 
and the heart with vigilant care; without 
ceasing on that account to be simple and 
natural in your whole demeanor; for the mos t 
vigilant are neither troubled nor embarrassed 
on account of their vigilance ; yet excessive 
fear of being recreant either to duty or pro¬ 
priety in such like circumstances, would only 
expose you to greater danger of falling into the 
snare you try to avoid, as it would pre-occupy 
the mind and weaken the will. In such con¬ 
junctures, remain as near as possible to your 
mother, keeping your eyes fixed upon her’s, 
always hearkening with a tender respect to the 
mysterious language that escapes from the 
maternal heart; a language easily understood 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


219 


by a daughter that loves the virtue of filial 
piety. 

The mother’s presence is always an infallible 
protection for young ladies; her looks are a 
book constantly open, and in which they can 
read her most secret thoughts; whether they 
approve or condemn their actions. Whenever 
you are called on to participate in worldly 
festivities let your mother be your visible 
guardian angel; she will preserve the inno¬ 
cence of your heart from the dangers that 
surround you. If you feel a secret desire to 
be relieved of your mother’s presence, as being 
something noxious to your liberty, rest assured 
that your heart has already lost something of 
its innocence and simplicity. A daughter who 
dreads her mother’s eye has evidently entered 
on a winding way, and ought to consider with 
suspicion the state of her soul. There is no 
company that you should prefer to that of your 


220 


SERIOUS HOURS 


mother, no conversation that you should esteem 
more than hers; there should he no pleasure 
that could engage you to forego the pleasure 
of being near her. God himself has placed 
those sentiments in the hearts of young ladies 
in order to guard them against the seduction 
of the world and the attractions of false plea¬ 
sures. He strengthens in their soul the virtue 
of filial piety, which forms an impregnable 
citadel around the heart, keeping it in perfect 
security against the evil influences of wicked 
agents. 

Your conduct in every detail ought to be 
discreet and grave in the company of young 
men with whom you are unacquainted. If 
they speak to you, answer them briefly mod¬ 
estly and with simplicity, but fearlessly. Let 
it he your constant endeavor to converse on 
subjects capable of interesting a serious mind; 
in this way you can better divert their atten- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


221 


tion from frivolous topics, and prevent perhaps 
indiscreet questions or rash intimacies. 

It is well to advert to the fact that, in 
consequence of a deteriorated faith and virtue 
among young men, in whom a bad education 
has oftentimes destroyed the happiest disposi¬ 
tions ; many among them have lost that esteem, 
respect and veneration for woman so prevalent 
in the Christian ages prior to ours. Such, 
unfortunately, is the case in thousands of 
instances now-a-days; for when a young man 
finds himself in company with a young lady 
his chief object is to amuse himself with her, 
if his heart, already vitiated, does not entertain 
desires more criminal still; he is unguarded in 
his conversation, while displaying his talents, 
complimenting her for qualities which he in¬ 
teriorly believes her devoid of. 

Bear in mind that this young man with 
whom yon are conversing watches all your 


222 


SERIOUS HOURS 


movements, studies all your looks, discusses 
and interprets interiorly every word you speak • 
while treating with you he plays the part of a 
cunning diplomatist whose wiles you happily 
ignore; but in order to escape from becoming 
his dupe, prudence should govern all your 
actions while in his company. 

Remember that there are in the world man¬ 
ners, gestures and attitudes that constitute a 
conventional language, but which bold nothing 
in common with the genuine sentiments of the 
heart, being like a counterfeit money which 
vanity pays and receives. It is one of the 
most dangerous snares for a young girl whose 
simplicity and candor are yet intact. Those 
qualities, so precious in themselves, are some¬ 
times prejudicial to her safety from the perfidy 
of a heart already skilful in the art of deceiv¬ 
ing. For, judging others by her own heart, 
she cannot suspect those who converse with 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


223 


her of wicked designs. She accepts all that 
is told her as the sincere expression of the 
heart, and very often receives for a genuine 
affection what is only hypocrisy and deception. 

If you are acquainted with the young men 
whom you meet in the world, you should know 
how to treat with them ; yet experience proves 
that for the most part a young lady is little 
posted in matters of this nature. If the mind 
is already poisoned by the distemper of incre¬ 
dulity, if the heart is already vitiated, if they 
have justly won by their evil conduct a sad 
notoriety in the world, if they are of that class 
that seek to take the advantage of woman’s 
simplicity by rendering vice agreeable to her in 
their own person; oh, you cannot treat them 
with too great severity. Your language, your 
looks, your attitude, should repel them from 
or command a respectful fear in your pre¬ 
sence. Do not fear to wound their feelings, or 


224 


SERIOUS HOURS 


to be impolite, or indecorous in their regard. 
An obstinate reserve, a severe demeanor, is all 
that you owe them. Treating them with 
that courtesy due to gentlemen would prove 
noxious to you, as they would not fail to 
make of it a plausible reason to justify their 
insolent conduct and rash judgments ; be 
not deceived, the slightest mark of bene¬ 
volence that they would receive from you 
would be immediately interpreted by them 
in the most perfidious manner. They detest 
virtue as much as you detest vice. They 
have a sovereign contempt for every woman, 
for they believe that she is unable to resist 
the allurements of pleasure. 

They are mutual confidentials, and tell each 
other, with deplorable levity, all that young 
ladies innocently say to them ; wickedly mis¬ 
construing their intentions, exaggerating what 
was true, and treating with sneering contempt 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


225 


those who were simple enough to believe in 
the sincerity of their hypocritical compliments. 
Most assuredly you have not the slightest desire 
of becoming the subject of the scandalous con¬ 
versation of those men; you have but one 
means, however, of guarding yourself against 
their venomous tongue ; that is, to exact from 
them a respectful deference by the gravity of 
your demeanor, and the severity of your rela¬ 
tions with them. 

If, on the contrary, you meet with young 
men who, with a lively faith, have conserved 
the purity of their hearts, and as a consequence 
of these virtues, all due respect for woman, you 
can show them greater confidence, and let them 
feel that you highly esteem them for their 
virtues, without, however, renouncing the pre¬ 
cautions advised by prudence while in their 
company. It is in such encounters that your 
conversation should reveal a serious turn of 


226 


SERIOUS HOURS 


mind, carefully avoiding every thing that would 
intimate undue confidence or intimacy ; for the 
heart of a young lady should never be on her 
lips ; except with regard to her mother, she 
should keep it buried in the depths of her soul 
to converse familiarly only with God and His 
angels. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


227 


CHAPTER XVII. 

CURIOSITY. 

E URIOSITY is a defect that seems to be 
particularly inherent to the heart of 
woman, and which, when not properly gov¬ 
erned, never fails to entail the most disastrous 
consequences. Through it they have frequently 
acquired a knowledge of evil and a disgust for 
virtue. You are well aware that curiosity was 
the door through which sin and death enter 
the world; that when the devil sought our 
destruction he made use of woman’s curiosity. 
Now, it is well not to lose sight of the fact that 
woman is always the daughter of Eve. She 
feels a pressing desire to see what pleases the 
mind, flatters the senses, and enlivens the 
imagination. Eager for vivid emotions, she 


228 


SERIOUS HOURS 


seeks them with an insatiable avidity; and, 
rather than feel nothing, she prefers painful 
emotions, finding a certain secret charm even in 
the fits of sorrow and pains of her imagination. 
Her great desire to see and hear whatever 
tends to excite or create emotion is in a great 
measure the source of her curiosity. The 
education that women for the most part receive 
develops this disposition of the heart: an 
education which, instead of elevating the mind 
and giving it a taste for serious things, narrows 
it, and accustoms it to feed upon aliments 
that are trivial and void of consistency. The 
mind requires to be kept in constant activity, 
and since thoughts alone can do this they 
should be such as to amply furnish it with 
solid and wholesome food, for all kinds of 
thoughts are not equally good for it, no more 
than all kinds of food are equally good for the 
body. In some kinds of food the quantity and 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


22 9 


quality of nutriment are much inferior to what 
they are found to be in other kinds. Hence 
greater moderation is required in the use of the 
latter than in that of the former, otherwise the 
stomach, overcharged, would soon become dis¬ 
gusted with it. 

On the other hand, no quantity of food void 
of nutritious qualities will ever appease hunger. 
The same thing may be said of the kind of 
thoughts with which the mind is fed; some 
are used less for their sound and wholesome 
nutriment than for their efficiency to flatter 
sensuality, inflame the passions, create new 
wants in the heart, and excite a depraved 
curiosity. Under this regime the mind is 
starved and tortured by an incessant hunger. 
It sadly languishes and pines in the grip of 
famine ; and all this in the midst of full 
and plenty, but this abundance contains no 
nutriment, it is made up of news, whether 


230 


SERIOUS HOURS 


true or false, which amuses without satiating; 
still the mind enlists the service of the senses 
to gather it up from all sides. The eyes, 
continually gaping and watching what passes 
before them, present the mind with number¬ 
less images to amuse it in its w 7 eary or lone¬ 
some moments. 

Hence that insatiable thirst to see and observe 
every thing, that inconstancy and want of 
changing from one place to another, that desire 
to read useless and frivolous books, novels, 
weeklies and magazines, which for the most 
part enervate the mind by their futilities, 
trouble and darken it by a multitude of inco¬ 
herent images and contradictory thoughts, and 
poison the heart by foul and filthy images that 
will constantly torment the soul. 

The ears are on the alert to catch every 
report, every murmur, all kinds of news, 
detractions and calumnies, stories and scandals. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


231 


I say all kinds of news, no—I make a mistake, 
it is only such news as is of an exciting or 
startling nature to break up the monotony of 
life. Hence those indiscreet questions which 
provoke answers more indiscreet still; those 
rash revelations made by thoughtless young 
ladies, those prying efforts to discover things 
which only exist perhaps in their own imagina¬ 
tion, and of which they should live in holy 
ignorance. 

Hence those long conversations, discussing 
the vices and evil doings of others, in which 
justice and charity are discarded, and iniquity 
drank like water. Few forego the criminal 
satisfaction of participating in those detestable 
conversations, and fewer still, alas ! reproach 
themselves at night for the detractions and 
calumnies committed, permitted, or provoked 
during the day, and by a monstrous union they 


232 


SERIOUS HOURS 


couple with those deeds the external practices 
of piety. 

This is but a feeble picture of the frightful 
condition of a mind starved for want of solid 
and wholesome food, and poisoned by the empty 
frothings of vanity and passion. Curiosity is 
the constant companion of this mediocrity of 
the mind and poverty of the heart. In order 
to avoid this fatal rock, no pains should be 
spared, and if, unfortunately, you have already 
drank at its poisoned sources, hasten to use 
every available means to arrest its ravages. To 
insure success, do not amuse yourself with 
lopping off the branches of the evil, allow¬ 
ing the root to remain, do at once what is 
essential : feed your mind and heart with 
a genuine love for the true and beautiful. 

A frivolous woman is invariably curious, and 
a curious woman always finishes by becoming 
the dupe and victim of her curiosity. To over- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


233 


come an inordinate love for sights and news you 
must accustom the mind’s eye to feast on the 
panoramic beauties of nature, and confine your¬ 
self to the company of persons of your own 
age, in whom you remark an elevated mind 
and heart,—lovers of what is truly good and 
grand. 

Curiosity has its source, also, in another defect 
which becomes daily more and more prevalent 
—it is a want of forethought and reflection, 
arising from a volatile and frivolous mind. Few, 
indeed, are lovers of the interior life; all seem 
to be bent on parading the mind and heart, 
the imagination and senses. Now, when man 
has not learned the art of living and convers¬ 
ing with himself, he becomes wearisome and 
sometimes dangerous to himself when alone; 
because the mind, not knowing how to occupy 
itself, and not finding in its own resources 
the thoughts that elevate and nourish it, is 


234 


SERIOUS HOURS 


obliged, in order to avoid lonesomeness, to 
dwell upon images which at least distract 
and weaken it, and not unfrequently disturb 
the peace of the heart. 

Religion, always inspired by God in the 
choice and formation of the terms which it 
employs to convey the ideas that it wishes 
to impress upon the heart, has invented two 
words, which admirably express the meaning 
of the concentration of the faculties of the 
soul,—in other words, that society or coha¬ 
bitation of man with himself—they are self- 
composure and recollection. 

These words express that state or power of 
the will by which it holds complete control 
over all the faculties of the soul; so that 
sensibility can have no command over any 
of their operations. Thus shielded from this 
turbulent disturber they are enabled to labor 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


235 


peacefully and efficiently in their interior 
province or the soul. 

The advantages secured by interior recol¬ 
lection are so great and the consequence of 
its absence so prejudicial that the Holy Ghost 
distinctly declares its absence to be the cause 
of all the evils that desolate the earth. “ With 
desolation is the earth laid desolate because 
there is no one who thinketh in his heart” 
This is a terrible truth, but it is not the 
less real on that account. To be convinced of 
this you need only descend into your own 
heart, and you will soon discover that the 
want of interior recollection has been the cause 
of the most of your faults. It is during the 
interior composure of the soul’s faculties that 
we understand what the Lord says. I will 
hear what the Lord God will speak in me, 
for he will speak peace unto them that are 
converted to the heart. (Psalm 84.) 


236 


SERIOUS HOURS 


But if we find nothing in the heart but 
trouble and obscurity we must naturally find 
many pretexts to justify our preoccupation 
with external things ; and like a man, finding 
his house the abode of pain and displeasure, 
remains away from it as long as possible, we, 
too, will shun as far as possible the scene of 
our misery. It is, therefore, of most vital 
importance for you to form in your own heart 
an agreeable and useful society with which 
you can always converse. This society you 
carry with you wherever you go, for you are 
with yourself at all times; and since you have 
not always the satisfaction to enjoy the com¬ 
pany of others you should learn how to turn 
to good account this privation by making it 
an incentive to cultivate with industry an 
agreeable society in your own heart; and the 
best way to insure the success of this work 
is to accustom yourself to converse with 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 237 

God who is always present in your heart, 
except when you expel him by mortal sin. 

The work itself must be made up of pious 
readings, meditation and prayer, which will 
furnish you with such thoughts and affections 
as will prove to be constant friends in pain 
as in joy; hasten to amass these honeyed 
treasures during the noon-tide of life; for the 
winter will soon come upon you, the flowers of 
life shall lose their perfume and their withered 
corolla shall be strewn on the ground. Then 
you will not have time to enrich the soul with 
the longed-for booty when you will be reduced 
to the miserable condition of those women who 
endeavor to conceal the poverty of their mind 
and heart by a foolish and puerile deception. 


238 


SERIOUS HOURS 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

MEDITATION AND REFLECTION. 

■ EDITATION and reflection are two 
words that express two shades of 
difference of the same idea. In meditation we 
consider supernatural things pertaining to our 
eternal salvation. The soul maintains her¬ 
self with difficulty in the love and practice of 
virtue without the help derived from medi¬ 
tation ; for when she gives it up, her fervor 
in piety grows lax, temptations became more 
frequent and obstinate, often followed by 
humiliating falls. 

You are well aware that the real object of 
the Christian’s life upon earth is to establish 
God’s kingdom in our heart; and this is what 
forms the object of the second petition that we 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


239 


address to God every day in the Lord’s prayer ; 
and since the kingdom of God is entirely 
interior, as Jesus Christ himself tells us, when 
He says : the kingdom of God is within us, 
we should acquire the habit of looking for 
God in our own heart; but in order to find 
Him there we must give Him a place in it 
by meditation and prayer. 

The advantages derived from meditation are 
so numerous and so great, that it is a matter 
of surprise why it is not more universally 
practised ; for the effects that it produces in the 
souls of those who are faithful to its practice 
are so striking that it is easy to discern a man 
given to this habit from those who are entire 
strangers to its holy influence. Meditation 
teaches us to know God and ourself; it lays 
open to us our faults and vices, their source 
and fatal consequences and the arms we should 
employ to combat them. Finally, meditation 


240 


SERIOUS HOURS 


contributes most efficiently to form our minds 
and purify our hearts, to fortify the will and 
develop in us the habit of reflecting. 

The knowledge of God and ourself is such 
an important factor in the work of our spiritual 
perfection that St. Augustin constantly prayed 
for it, saying : “ Lord grant that I may know 
Thee and myself .” The pagans themselves well 
understood the advantage of this most impor¬ 
tant science, even for the securing of the 
happiness of this life; since they had the 
following words inscribed, as a summary of all 
human science, upon the frontispiece of the 
most celebrated temple of Greece, know thou 
thyself. But, alas ! this knowledge is as rare 
as it is necessary ; with a mind absorbed by 
distractions, and a heart harassed by passions, 
we flee, so to speak, from God and from our¬ 
selves. 

Where is the Christian that knows God ? Do 


OF A YOUNG LADY, 


241 


you presume that you know full well what He is, 
what He has done for you, and what He still 
does for you every day ? Every moment you 
receive His gifts: your life is due to His bene¬ 
ficence and His love, you are carried in the 
bosom of His providence as in the arms of 
your mother, He is continually preoccupied 
with your welfare, He has done all, created 
all things for your comfort and happiness; 
for your sake he has become man, to parti¬ 
cipate in all the infirmities, weakness and 
miseries of our humanity, in order to heal 
lhem and console us. Every thing speaks 
of Him, and proclaims His holy name to you. 
All that you see, all that you hear and feel 
must recall to your mind some gift of His 
love, or some effect of His mercy. All crea¬ 
tures in heaven and on earth are like so 
many voices which, mingling in a harmonious 
concert, sing to you His praises and publish 
His mercies. 


242 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Do you listen to them ? Do they not pass 
you unperceived like the flitting zephyrs’ 
leaving no trace to mark their passage. Did 
you ever seriously try to render an account 
of the attributes of God, and particularly of 
His goodness and justice ? of His goodness 
to endear Him to all, and of His justice to 
make Him be feared by all. Have you con¬ 
sidered well that to know God is to know all, 
because He is the Author of all creation 
possessing in Himself to an infinite degree 
all the perfections of His creation ? 

He who does not labor to obtain a knowledge 
of God can scarcely obtain any knowledge of 
himself. How is it possible for us to know 
what we are while we ignore what God is for us 
and what we owe Him ? Oh, how few there 
are who know themselves ! The first condition 
necessary to secure this knowledge, so important 
and so precious, is profound humility, which 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


243 


unsparingly reveals the real motive of all our 
actions, the uncompromising antagonist of our 
pride and self-love. 

Now it is quite evident that he who does 
not know God does not possess this virtue ; for 
how can a man humble himself before a being 

O 

that he ignores ? At first sight it may seem 
that there is nothing so easy as to know one’s 
self,—that this knowledge may be obtained by 
a close consideration of the heart’s operations ; 
but when we give the matter sufficient thought 
the work does not appear to be so easy. And 
the number of those who have acquired this 
knowledge to any noted degree is so limited 
that we are forced to infer that a knowledge so 
rare must offer great difficulties. 

However, there is one thing certain, namely : 
that this knowledge is not obtained in the midst 
of tumult and pleasures, from the seductions 
of the world or the distractions of life. It is 


244 


SERIOUS HOURS 


not by fleeing one’s-self as we would fly an 
enemy ; by concealing with a complaisant but 
perfidious veil our defects, to avoid being 
troubled by their appearance—always painful 
to pride ; it is not by living a dreamy life of 
fiction to which the slaves of the world con¬ 
demn themselves with a deplorable obsequious¬ 
ness ; it is not by continually trying to deceive 
ourselves and others that we may learn how to 
know ourselves; and, just as our knowledge of 
material things increases by the frequency of 
our relations with them —for instance we know 
persons better with whom we are intimately 
acquainted than those with whom we are com¬ 
paratively strangers—so, likewise, in order to 
know ourselves well, we must live intimately 
with ourselves, observe closely and impartially 
all the movements of our mind and heart, 
frequently descending into the depth of our 
soul, scrupulously examining our thoughts, 


CF A YOUNG LADY. 


245 


desires and actions, sparing no pains to 
discern well their source and motives ; 
this latter portion of the work is, without 
doubt, the most difficult, since it is the point 
at which all the passions unite to deceive 
us by the most subtle illusions. The best 
actions are despoiled of their merit by certain 
motives of vanity, often concealed from our 
own notice. 

The motives by which we are actuated are, 
relative to our actions, what the eye is relative 
to our body,—it is the motive that gives light 
and brilliancy to our actions. This is the sense 
in which we should understand our Lord when 
He says if our eye be simple our whole body 
will be luminous. Now the great light by 
which we can clearly see the motives for which 
we act is meditation. 

In the peaceful calm of solitude, and in the 
silent slumber of the passions, meditation puts 


246 


SERIOUS HOURS 


us in presence of ourselves, before our own 
eyes, by which we see ourselves as in a true 
mirror. Meditation teaches us to judge without 
prejudice what we have done and to deter¬ 
mine with propriety what we should do, by 
making the experience of the past our lamp 
for the future, and by converting past mis¬ 
takes into practical lessons for the present. 

The meditative and recollected soul will turn 
even her shortcomings to good account; seeing 
her delinquencies, she clothes herself with the 
mantle of humility, she rises with renewed 
confidence, and shuns with greater care the 
occasion of those evils from which she' has 
suffered; she is rarely taken by surprise, a few 
moments’ reflection will suffice for her to deter¬ 
mine what is to be done under the circum¬ 
stances ; she is rarely taken in the snare of 
deception, for she knows that human nature is 
weak, vacillating and unreliable, and, con¬ 
sequently, she keeps herself on her guard. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


247 


Considered from this point of view; medita¬ 
tion is particularly necessary to woman, because, 
being endowed with a very lively imagination 
and a tender heart, she is more exposed to 
illusions which, for the most part, spring from 
those two sources. Moreover, surrounded as 
she is, by the seductions of the world ; breath¬ 
ing incessantly the poisoned atmosphere of 
flattery and adulation; waited on by men who 
seek to deceive her; distracted by a multitude 
of cares which absorb her soul; lost in a pain¬ 
ful detail of trifles; how will she be able to 
resist the united action of those trials ; if she 
has not contracted the salutary habit of fre¬ 
quently conversing with her own heart by holy 
meditation and recollection ? 

The precious habit of meditation makes its 
influence felt by all the faculties of the soul. 
It imparts to the mind the love of solitude, 
assurance and confidence to the judgment, 


248 


SERIOUS HOURS 


consistency to all the thoughts. It is by 
reflecting on what we interiorly feel, as well as 
on what we exteriorly see, that we enrich our 
intelligence and acquire that cheerful alacrity 
and firmness of purpose so necessary and 
precious in the most trying and delicate circum¬ 
stances of life. 

A woman of an irreflective mind becomes 
an easy prey to her own impressions ; rarely 
ever seeing things in their true light she is 
balloted from one illusion to another, from one 
error to another; she believes in every thing, 
hopes for all that she desires, and desires all that 
flatters her. Unable to render an exact account 
either of the thoughts of her mind or the move¬ 
ments of her heart, she acts without aim or 
motive, governed solely by the caprice of her 
imagination or the impulse of whimsical humor ; 
equanimity is impossible in the midst of such 
confusion. All this will have a fatal effect 


OP A YOUNG LADY. 


249 


upon her spiritual welfare ; for what shocked 
her some time ago w r ill now fail to make the 
slightest impression. The bloom of youth will 
soon fade away, leaving to her only confused 
souvenirs of those days when, to be happy, it 
sufficed for her to descend into her own soul, 
where she always found peace and consolation. 

If you wish to preserve in all their integrity 
the faculties of your soul; if you would not 
have your life ruled by the caprice of the 
imagination; contract at an early age the 
salutary and happy custom of making your 
meditation. Set apart a special time for it 
every day, let it be practical, having for its 
object the spiritual progress of your soul, 
the santification of your life. Lay out in 
God’s presence what you have to do every day, 
recall to mind the places, persons and things 
that have been to you an occasion of sin, or a 
help in the exercise of virtue, in order to avoid 


250 


SERIOUS HOURS 


the evil accruing from the one source, and 
increase the influence arising from the other. 
Never recline your head upon your pillow 
before having rendered an exact account of the 
day you have just finished, like the merchant 
who, every night, tots up his loss and gain, 
to see what has been the result of the day’s 
transactions. The next day, with the double 
armour of experience and resolve, you will be 
better able to avoid what proved noxious 
before, as well as to do the good that you had 
omitted. By thus acting you will give to 
your life a sure direction, a powerful impetus 
in the accomplishment of all that is worthy of 
your glorious destiny. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


251 


CHAPTER XIX. 

OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS. 

the natural order of things, man, after 
H§ having obeyed his parents in his youth, 
becomes in turn the head of another family 
which he must govern by the authority of 
his word and example. God has given to 
woman another vocation. She obeys from her 
childhood, and obedience becomes more neces¬ 
sary to her as she advances in years; for when 
she quits the paternal roof for the one of her 
choice, it is still to obey and be directed by 
the will of another. But in this second moiety 
of her life she often finds the practice of obe¬ 
dience more difficult and painful than it was 
when she lived with her parents. More than 
once has the young woman, allured by the 


252 


SERIOUS HOURS 


deceitful charms of a false liberty, left with, 
a secret joy the paternal roof, hoping thereby 
to be delivered from the duty of obe¬ 
dience which weighed so heavily on her 
heart. But, alas! she has often been obliged 
to regret those days as the happiest of her 
life, when the tender solicitude of a mother 
rendered submission sweet and easy. 

God, whose Providence is infinitely wise, 
has disposed all things in such a way that 
each epoch of life is a preparation to that 
which follows; strengthened by the labors of 
the past, we are fitted for those of the future, 
and prepared for the accomplishment of the 
duties of to-day by our fidelity to obligations 
less difficult of yesterday ; we are thus imper¬ 
ceptibly and safely conducted by this graded 
scale to the end for which we were created. 

Hence you may consider the present as 
your noviciate to the future; the family circle 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


253 


at home is the image of that with which you 
must live at a later time; and while your 
duties and trials will vary with your position, 
there is one obligation that always remains 
invariable; that is obedience. If you have 
learned well how to obey your parents whom 
God has given you, you will find it easier 
in after life to bend your will when obliged 
in submission to that of another. 

At present holy obedience is not painful to 
you ; on the contrary, it is a pleasure, as it is a 
means by which you can please your dear 
parents whom you love; and by force of habit 
it is now so deeply engraved in your heart as 
to be an act of second nature. But other times 
and other circumstances will present new 
difficulties, when perhaps you will be obliged 
to obey a man of your own age, possessed of 
none of those qualities that give authority and 
prestige to command. 

H 


254 


SERIOUS HOURS 


The familiarity that exists between the 
married couple which, when truly Christian, 
is one of the greatest charms of their life, not 
unfrequentl y becomes for woman an obstacle 
to the observance of obedience ; but she has 
reason to rejoice when her delinquency does 
not diminish the sacred authority of her 
husband’s commands. The lady who has been 
docile to the orders of her parents will be 
docile to those of her husband; for as we are 
assured by Holy Writ, our accomplishment 
of the duties that God has imposed on us 
relative to our parents is rewarded even in 
this life; as likewise our delinquencies on 
this point will incur heaven’s displeasure. 

The paternal home should be for you a 
school of respect, obedience, gratitude, and 
love; and these virtues should be constantly 
manifested in your conduct; for, mark it 
well, you will be in the position destined for 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


255 


yon later by God what you are presently in 
that which you now occupy. There is a 
logical succession in all our actions, whether 
good or bad. In each one of your actions 
may be found the germ of another which, being 
developed in due time, will produce others. 
The same is also true of that happy or unfor¬ 
tunate succession of thoughts and affections 
which is developed into habit; and which is 
engrafted in our very souls, forming, as it were, 
an integral part of our nature. From our in¬ 
fancy, God, in His infinite goodness, has given 
us a facility to do good, which in the course 
of time can be strengthened by habit; it will 
enable us to surmount obstacles and dangers 
that increase wdth age, but which are ignored 
in childhood. 

The individual practice of respect, obedience, 
confidence; and gratitude is necessary for the 
preservation of society $ and in order to render 


256 


SERIOUS HOURS 


this practice easy for us, God, in loving goodness 
has removed from those beautiful flowers of 
virtue, whose perfume should embalm our whole 
life, the thorns that might pierce us. He has 
confided their care to those to whom, after God, 
we owe our life, and towards whom we are 
drawn by an invincible inclination of the heart. 
When we merge into the noon-tide of life we 
find these virtues already engrafted in our 
souls, with little trouble to us, for they were 
planted there by the hands of good and pious 
parents ; and, as a reward for our fidelity to their 
instructions, those cherished virtues take deep 
root in the heart and grow imperceptibly as we 
advance in years. 

But if, instead of being docile to their orders, 
we have stubbornly resisted them, if ? by some 
unaccountable egotism, the soul has become 
concentrated in herself; and instead of giving 
our confidence and love to those who have so 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


257 


generously given their life and means to secure 
to us the happiness we enjoy, we rest satisfied 
with living on the fruits of their labors without 
making them any return; we will carry with 
us later on into the family of our choice only 
a withered heart, dead to every noble and 
generous sentiment. 

You should respect and honor your parents 
with the filial love of a Christian daughter. 
Such is the precise meaning of the precept 
given you by God in their regard: Honor 
thy father and thy mother ! Relative to you 
they hold God’s place, who is the source of all 
paternity in heaven and upon earth. Nothing 
can dispense you from this respect which God 
requires for them, and which nature ought to 
render easy to you; for, even when your 
parents would suffer by a criminal negligence 
the image of God to be deteriorated in their 
souls; they always remain His representatives 


258 


SERIOUS HOURS 


for you, because they are always, no matter 
what they may do, the instruments that God 
employed to give you existence. 

The faults of your parents should never 
diminish in your heart the respect and honor 
that you owe them; and in certain painful and 
delicate circumstances, you should imitate the 
example of the two sons of Noah in order to 
escape the malediction that fell upon Cham 
for his impudent strictures of his father’s 
faults. You should carefully draw the mantle 
of charity over any fault of your parents that 
might tend to weaken your respect for them. 
Silence should seal your lips forever on all 
their shortcomings, even before those who 
know them, unless that it be to ask advice in 
some critical conjuncture, or bring them to 
receive some useful and charitable counsel. 
God alone should be the depository of your 
sorrowful confidence in this matter. To Him 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


259 


alone you should confide your sorrows and 
alarms, because He alone should hold the first 
place in your mind and heart, for He will be 
your judge as well as theirs. 

If you see that a salutary effect may be 
obtained by a prudent and respectful obser¬ 
vation, be slow in making it, and never act 
before having consulted some virtuous and 
enlightened persons; should they advise you in 
the affirmative, let your observation assume the 
tone of a remonstration rather than a warning. 
Your language, actions or gestures should never 
savor of anything that betrayed a disregard 
for that profound veneration with which you 
should honor in them the title of God’s repre¬ 
sentatives in your regard. An unfortunate 
custom, the fruit of a bad education, or of an 
excessive tenderness on the part of parents, 
has sadly vitiated the nature and form of the 
relations that should exist between child and 
parent. 


260 


SERIOUS HOURS 


During the present century in many places 
a fatal familiarity seems to have sapped the 
very foundation from that profound respect 
which was the honor and glory of the Christian 
family, and the salt that preserves nations from 
corruption; that respect which children, who 
truly feared God, paid to their parents. To 
that beautiful order that reigned in the Chris¬ 
tian family, and which preserved inviolable 
the father’s authority in Christian times, has 
succeeded a spirit of equality as hostile to the 
natural order as to the order of Divine Provi¬ 
dence, since it destroys both rank and duty. 
It gives birth to that false independence which 
may justly be called the seed of revolution and 
anarchy; no consequence is more natural, for 
what can be expected of a citizen who imbibed 
in his childhood, under the paternal roof, the 
spirit of disobedience and insubordination, who 
was taught to regard superiority with a jealous 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


261 


eye, and treat with contempt those who are 
beneath him. 

After paying due respect to your parents, 
they should he, after God, the depositories of 
your confidence, and since a daughter’s wants 
are more easily communicated to her mother, 
it is in her mother’s heart that a Christian 
daughter will deposit the secrets of her own. 
This filial confidence supposes, also, in a young 
lady a sincere diffidence in her self, a con¬ 
sciousness of her own weakness which, so far 
from being a fault, is the result of true hu¬ 
mility. Those young ladies who are wanting 
in confidence in their own mothers are indeed 
great objects of compassion. For this confi¬ 
dence is not only an essential condition to 
their advancement in virtue, but also one of 
their principal safeguards against deception 
and intrigue. 

The heart of woman, especially at your age, 


262 


SERIOUS HOURS 


feels an imperative need of making a confidant 
of some one, and if that one is not her mother, 
it will be some friend who, perhaps, will not 
possess greater experience nor more wisdom or 
force than herself, and consequently, instead 
of giving the proper counsel, will add evil to 
evil by the fatal help of encouragement in a 
course that should be abandoned. Eest assured 
that you can never find any one able to fill the 
mother’s place in this regard. This unreserved 
abandonment to a mother’s confiding heart is 
not always possible, since death often inter¬ 
feres. When such is the case it is a great 
misfortune for a young lady—a misfortune 
that can scarcely be retrieved in her lifetime. 
It is easy to recognise a woman whose soul 
has been fostered in that of her mother. Such 
women ordinarily possess a milder disposition, 
a more amiable ingenuousness, with a certain 
simplicity of heart which, without being pre- 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


263 


judicial in the least to her mind, adds a 
new charm to the noble and generous virtues 
which become the mother of a family. Those 
habits of confidence and abandonment con¬ 
tracted from childhood have made frankness 
and sincerity second nature. Their love for 
truth and sincerity is revealed in their conver¬ 
sation, the sanctity of which is the echo of 
their souls. Their whole demeanor sheds 
such a halo of delight around them that they 
become, unpretentiously, the centre of attrac¬ 
tion for all those whose enviable pleasure if 
is to be honored by their company. 

If up to this hour you have concealed noth¬ 
ing from your mother; if you have given her 
the key to your soul • if your heart is for her 
an open book; if she can at all times read in 
your looks your very thoughts; on bended 
knees thank God from the depths of your soul 
for having given you such a mother, and the 


264 


SERIOUS HOURS 


grace of giving her your confidence. If you 
remain a child to your mother you will pre¬ 
serve your youth through the toilsome days 
of life to a ripe old age, an advantage so 
precious that nothing should be left undone to 
secure it. 

Woman is pleasing to others only in as much 
as she possesses this adornment, which exhales 
a sweet odor like the perfume of youth. 
Alas ! how many women there are who have 
never been children even with their mothers. 
Women from their youth, they have treated 
their mother with a kind of diffidence, dissem¬ 
bling at an age when the only danger to be 
feared should be an excessive confidence. 

As for the gratitude and love that you owe 
your parents, I would regard it as an injury 
offered to the candor of your age and the sin¬ 
cerity of your heart to undertake to prove 
that these are obligations which you are in 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


265 


duty bound to discharge. God who has 
commanded us to honor our parents, left us no 
precept obliging us to love them; but while 
He engraved other commandments upon stone 
this one He has written in the very essence 
of our being. Hence I appeal only to your 
heart in this matter, leaving you entirely to 
its instincts to point out to you your duty, 
which to assert by any other proof, I fear 
would lead you to suspect that there are 
children unnatural enough to forget and 
neglect their parents. 

Bear in mind, h owever, that your love and 
gratitude for them must by no means be 
restricted to a sentiment of the heart or an 
instinct of nature. Those virtues must find 
an echo both in your words and actions. Love 
founded on sensibility has no signification, if 
you can make no sacrifice to obey or please 
them. Love in man is effective, and this is 


266 


SERIOUS HOURS 


why our Lord tells us with regard to the love 
we owe Him: He who loves me keeps my com¬ 
mandments. 

To love consists in pleasing him who is loved ; 
it is prefering his will to our own, his interests 
to ours; in a word, it is to seek him rather 
than attract him ; it is to become his property 
rather than to appropriate him ; it is to forget 
ourself to think of him. Love lives upon sac¬ 
rifices ; as the pious author of the Following of 
Christ says : where love is, there is also pain : 
hut love converts that pain into pleasure. If 
this be true of all the affections of the human 
heart; what shall we think of the one that we 
have first felt, and which in some way forms 
a part of our very nature ? 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


267 


CHAPTER XX. 

MELANCHOLY. 

will perhaps seem strange to you to be 
A warned in the bloom of youth against a 
sentiment that seems to be reserved for that 
period of life when delinquents, through the 
infinite goodness of God, are brought to enter 
into themselves; when the illusions of the 
heart have been replaced by a cold and sad 
reality ; when hope seems to recoil under the 
weight of sad recollections. Still, because this 
mental canker preys on the most vital interests 
of the soul, and because a predisposition to it 
is found to prevail even among the youthful 
portion of your sex, a certain knowledge of it 
is necessary in order to resist it effectually. 

It is most delightful and consoling to find 


268 


SERIOUS HOURS 


in persons of your age and sex that pure joy, 
so frank and candid, springing out of the 
innocence and simplicity of the heart; a good 
conscience and a lively faith, with unbounded 
confidence in Divine Providence ; all of which 
combine to produce that sweet and saintly 
cheerfulness which dilates the heart and lights 
up the soul with its amiable reflections. But, 
alas ! we confess with deep regret, that many 
young ladies have been ruthlessly robbed of 
all those charms by a precocious development 
received under the world’s tutorship, by which 
they have been made to cross with a bound the 
smiling season of hope and joy, to a premature 
old age before having tasted the charms of 
youth. 

In order that joy may reign in the heart, 
the heart must first repose in the bosom of 
Divine Providence—free from the pressure of 
doleful souvenirs, and from the pestering 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


269 


desires stirred up by vanity ; in a word, exempt 
from every obstacle, whether intrinsic or ex¬ 
trinsic, that might in any way oppose the de¬ 
signs of God. But, alas! by some unaccount¬ 
able inconsistency, we are in contradiction with 
ourselves; for, notwithstanding our great de¬ 
sire to live, and our horror of death, still we 
seem to be in a hurry with the time to 
pass, as though we advanced too slowly to the 
grave. 

Now, we are well aware that of this life¬ 
time the present is all that we can claim, the 
past and future being in the hands of God; 
still, true to the same principle of inconsistency 
we make little or no use of the present, it is 
something annoying that we wish to get over, 
as quickly as possible, while we are absorbed 
by a countless multitude of useless but im¬ 
portunate desires relative to the past, which 
we can never recall, and the future, which per- 
aps we shall never see. 


270 


SERIOUS HOURS 


Hence, as we journey onward in this way, 
we must naturally find ourselves a prey to 
fears and doubts, sometimes suspended between 
hope and despondency, while the heart is 
harassed by corroding desires that succeed each 
other like waves on a tempest-driven sea. We 
wish to be our own providence, to dispose of our 
own future of our lifetime according to those 
desires, instead of leaving that work to Him 
from whom we have received all that we pos¬ 
sess. 

When we are assailed by regrets in the even¬ 
ing, and filled with anxieties for the morrow, how 
can our heart rebound with joy, or our lips 
wear the smile of confidence and tranquility ? 
Behold some of the many sources from which 
the fatal fiend of melancholy is fed and 
strengthened. But this vile destroyer of peace¬ 
ful joy springs from another source not less 
fatal than those just mentioned. That is a 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


271 


certain vagueness of mind and heart, which is 
sometimes the result of some physical or bodily 
indisposition, but more frequently the conse¬ 
quence of an imperfect education, or indiffer¬ 
ence in the service of God. 

That which gives to the mind its needed 
assurance and strength, and to the heart its 
consistency and solidity, is a lively faith, 
nourished and sustained by a sincere piety. 
Of this you are thoroughly convinced, as 
you know full well that faith alone can give a 
solid basis to our thoughts, a true direction to 
our desires, and an eternal destiny to our 
hopes. Without faith the mind is without 
ballast—unsettled as to what it ought to believe 
or reject; the heart ignores what it should 
fear or hope for; in a word, the soul is lost in 
the midst of her vacillating desires. 

In order that faith may impart its vivifying 
influence it must penetrate the soul’s substance, 


272 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and become to her the principle of a new life, 
directing all her movements, animating all her 
thoughts, desires and hopes. A superficial and 
inactive faith that is purely exterior, satisfied 
with believing what God reveals, without 
quickening the spiritual pulsations of the soul, 
will not preserve her from that vagueness and 
uncertainty which deprive all objects of their 
natural colors, and lend them a sombre shade 
which saddens the heart. 

If you would escape falling a victim to 
melancholy, preserve your faith with precious 
care, enliven it constantly by fervent prayer, 
by meditation and the abundant graces received 
through the Sacraments. Let its pure light be 
the rule of your thoughts and actions, accustom 
your mind to dwell upon things that are 
practical, and consequently useful, sedulously 
avoiding all speculative or doubtful topics, that 
have no other result than to keep the mind in 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


273 


a state of suspense and indecision. You will 
fare better in having a clear knowledge of 
practical things, even at the cost of appearing 
less learned than others. 

A third source of melancholy is a species of 
mental idleness, concerning which women are 
exposed to labor under a false impression. 
As they are naturally given to manual occu¬ 
pation habit begets with them an antipathy 
to mental labor • their j udgment is readily but 
erroneously convinced by their feelings, which 
easily lead them to believe that they are 
sufficiently occupied when their fingers are 
engaged in fixing an embroidery or some¬ 
thing similar. To reason the matter, they will 
readily admit that labor exclusively manual 
having no share in the exercise of the mental 
faculties, cannot be considered to give suffi 
cient occupation to an intelligent being; since 
the imagination would be left to the mercy 


274 


SERIOUS HOURS 


of its caprices and the heart to the whims o! 
its desires, which is not worthy of a bein< 
created to the image and likeness of God, 
who commands ns to labor as He labored, 
namely: with mind and heart constantly 
supplying useful thoughts to the one and noble 
sentiments to the other. 

Such is the heavenly duty enjoined by those 
consoling words of our Saviour : pray always. 
At first sight it would seem that such an obli¬ 
gation is impossible and contrary to human 
nature. We cannot, however, even suppose 
that He who has made man what he is, mis¬ 
understood his nature so far as to command 
him to do impossibilities. 

Every thought that raises the mind towards 
God, every sentiment that brings the heart 
near to Him, is a prayer. Hence there is no 
occupation that may not become a prayer, 
since there is none that may not be referred 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


275 


to God. The duties and obligations of woman, 
far from being an obstacle to the practical 
exercise of the above principle, on the 
contrary favor its execution most admirably; 
for her duties, though of the manual order 
for the most part, are not of a nature to 
distract the mind or absorb the heart; she can 
easily and constantly concentrate the thoughts 
of the one and the affections of the other 
upon God. 

That you should make God the object of all 
your actions is your first and most imperative 
duty, and the moment that you discharge your 
duties for any other end that moment they 
shall lose the dignity of deeds worthy of a 
Christian or even of a rational being ; moreover 
your mind, as you are fully aware, is endowed 
with perpetual activity, it is never idle,—you 
need only chose the objects to which you wish 
to apply it. But if you fail to apply it to 


276 


SERIOUS HOURS 


things worthy of your sublime calling it will 
soon escape from your control, and, flitting from 
one trifle to another, it will meddle with objects 
that might become dangerous to the peace of 
your soul. It will soon become preoccupied 
by puerile fears, unfounded apprehensions, 
vague sadness, which, when constantly indulged 
in, will deliver your soul over to melancholy 
which never fails to tarnish the purity of the 
heart and enervate the energy of the will. 

The pain that many suffer from their 
imaginary ills robs them of the noble and 
generous love of compassionating the real 
and painful griefs of others. Egotism is nur¬ 
tured and fortified in those ravings which attach 
the soul’s energies to the consideration of our 
own ills or sorrows; the heart grows cold and 
hardened in a deplorable insensibility which 
estranges it to every sentiment of pity and 
compassion for others. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


277 


There is, I am aware, a sorrow that is salutary 
to the soul, and conformable to the spirit 
of Christianity, as also to man’s condition in 
this vale of tears. I know that it is very 
difficult to be always joyful, when we take 
into account the dangers by which we are sur¬ 
rounded, the countless calamities to which we 
are exposed since the day that sin had entered 
the world. We very often see the objects of 
our warmest affections disappear from around 
us; and every day some new misfortune or 
some new loss adds some new tears to our 
cup of sorrow, from whose bitterness every 
one is doomed to drink during life. 

Far from me be the thought of engaging you 
to fly this holy sorrow imposed by our con¬ 
dition and recommended by our Lord Himself. 
“ There is” says St. Paul, “ a sorrow accord¬ 
ing to God ” which, far from plunging the 
heart into a state of despondency, enables the 


278 


SERIOUS HOURS 


soul to avoid the dangers which constantly 
expose her to lose God by sin. But this 
sorrow does not trouble the peace of either 
the heart or the mind, for it is that sorrow 
which our divine Saviour called blessed, and 
for which He has promised consolation. 

Bar be from me, also, the thought of advising 
that foolish and boisterous joy which carries 
away the soul, absorbing all her energies 
filling her with void and disgust. This joy, 
far from being a remedy or a protection 
against melancholy, is, on the contrary, both 
its cause and effect. The result of those intem¬ 
perate paroxysms of joy, so little in conformity 
with our nature is that which invariably 
results from any forced or undue influence. 

When shackled nature recovers her liberty 
she revenges the violence that she was made to 
endure. But, seizing her rights with too great 
avidity, she suffers more from the reaction than 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


279 


from the force that infringed upon them. This 
explains the reason of those fitful outbursts of 
joy and grief that pass in quick succession. 
Those puerile fears, followed by hopes, without 
rule or aim, that vain confidence giving place 
to sad discouragement. Those despondent 
feelings after moments of zealous fever, during 
which we seem to be able to do and attempt 
everything. Here we find the solution of 
those sudden and varied shades of temperament 
which will instantaneously cheer or prostrate 
the energies of the soul. 

If you would preserve your soul from 
melancholy, conserve your heart in a calm 
composure, your mind in a just equanimity 
keeping both equally distant from all extremes 
able to taste joy with discretion, and sorrow 
without becoming discouraged. This will 
be putting in practice the advice of the wise 
man: Give not up thy soul to sadness and 


280 


SERIOUS HOURS 


afflict not thyself in thy own counsel. The 
joyfulness of the heart is the life of man 
and a never-failing treasure of holiness, and 
the joy of man is length of life. Have 
pity on thy own soul, pleasing God and 
contain thyself; gather up thy heart in his 
holiness and drive away sadness far from 
thee. Tor sadness hath killed many and 
there is no profit in it. Envy and anger 
shorten a man’s days, and pensiveness will 
bring old age before the time. A cheerful and 
good heart is always feasting, for his banquets 
are prepared with diligence. Eccl. xxx. 22-27. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


281 


CHAPTER XXI. 


ON READING. 


HHP the wisdom of nations, which loves to 
9K find expression in the proverbs, teaches 
us that a man may be known by knowing the 
company that he frequents; we can say with 
the same assurance that his character and 
dispositions may be known from the books 
which he constantly reads. Of all friends, the 
most intimate are the books that we constantly 
read, hence there is nothing more important 
for a young person, as there is nothing that 
entails such grave consequences for the moral 
culture, than the selection of proper and 
suitable books. Because it is a noted fact 
that such readings exercise the deepest 
influence over the mind and heart, so much 


282 SERIOUS HOURS 

that all the resources which the ingeniousness 
of maternal love can employ against it avail 
nothing. God’s minister in the pulpit of 
truth has no weight with those souls fasci¬ 
nated by the deceitful charms of a bad book, 
which addresses itself to their prejudices 
and passions. The charitable advice of the 
confessor in the tribunal of penance is futile 
against the intoxicating seductions of those 
romances whose only merit consists in 
flattering the most depraved inclinations of the 
human heart. 

Indeed it is a subject both of surprise and 
sorrow to see an author of the most menial 
abilities lauded to the skies for a book still 
more abject than himself, a book teeming with 
error and immorality ; while, very often, a 
discourse, a sermon or an instruction, what¬ 
ever may be the authority that they receive 
either from the character of the person who 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


283 


pronounces them, or from the gravity of the 
circumstances in which he speaks, are heard 
with indifference. Good and evil, truth and 
error, are never so rapidly propagated, never 
so powerful in their action, never so certain 
in their effects as when they are communicated 
to us under the form of a book authorized 
by fashion or party spirit. Hence there is 
no greater responsibility before God than that 
which man assumes when he wields the pen 
in the name of humanity, whether for noble 
or selfish ends. 

A book is a teacher whose doctrine is 
listened to with a willingness equal to its 
degree of conformity to the inclinations of our 
heart. It is a friend that gains our con¬ 
fidence, inasmuch as it flatters our preju¬ 
dices and passions, and in which we find a 
reflection of our own thoughts, the echo of 
our most secret sentiments. You would not 


284 


SERIOUS HOURS 


like to receive a stranger into your house 
without his being properly recommended, 
but you will readily receive a hook on the 
strength of reports that are often deceitful. 

The country is flooded with productions that 
sap the foundations of morality, and which bear 
that imprimatur given by a poisoned public 
opinion to such authors as pander to its craven 
spirit. The world judges with a depraved 
indulgence the book in which it finds its 
maxims approved and sanctioned, portraying 
the exact seducing picture of its vanities. 
The purest souls and, not unfrequently, serious 
minds are too often imposed upon by those 
popular prejudices, and, despite their good 
reason, yield to their influence by reading 
the flimsy productions of depraved minds, 
which, besides all the other injuries they cause, 
rob them of a most precious time. A book 
must be very bad before the world condemns 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


285 


it, so bad, in fact, that its own intrinsic filth 
disgusts the reader and seals its fate. But 
there is another kind of literature favorably 
received by that portion of mankind called 
respectable, honest, and sometimes even 
severe, and whose authority is capable of 
making a grave impression on your mind. 

It is, therefore, very important for you to 
know not only the signs by which to recognize 
a bad book, but also whom you should consult 
as judges in the matter. There can be no 
question here of those books professedly 
immoral, in which vice is eulogized and corrupt 
maxims sustained. Those books are not 
dangerous for you, because they will not fall 
under your hands, and even when they would 
you could not open one of them without fling¬ 
ing it away with horror •—in this case the 
evil contains in itself its own remedy. 

But there are books, less dangerous in 


286 


SERIOUS HOURS 


appearance, in which the most delicate situ¬ 
ations are represented, clothed in all the 
charms of style, well calculated, under their 
moral guise and serious bearing, to captivate 
the heart and imagination. Indeed to repre¬ 
sent in lively colors the terrible effects of 
the passions, and the fatal consequences that 
a momentary excitement might entail is not 
of a nature to inspire a young lady with horror 
for vice and love for virtue. How is it 
possible that she will guard against the 
evil inclinations of the heart, when she is 
conscious of the danger in giving them free 
scope, and that a momentary forgetfulness 
is sometimes punished by a life-time of sorrow 
and bitterness ? Such a culpable negligence 
might he accounted for, if there existed a 
necessary relation between the will and the 
imagination, by which the determinations 
of the former are necessarily dependant 
upon the impressions of the latter. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


287 


But such is not the case, for the imagina¬ 
tion has a sphere of action very different from 
that of the intelligence or the will. It is an 
interior mirror which reflects back upon the 
soul images of things beheld by the senses and 
conceived by the intelligence, without regard to 
time or place. Positively no, would be the 
answer of a young lady of self-respect, whom 
we would ask if she would like to see with her 
own eyes all that is spoken of in the novel 
which she reads with so little caution! Your 
answer would be given in the same terms, 
should we ask you if she might read without 
impunity to virtue those intrigues, those scenes 
so engaging to curiosity, and which incite the 
reader to follow up the details of ineffectual 
struggles against passion. Could she, without 
blushing, listen to the passionate conversations 
of those who had lead each other to destruc¬ 
tion, after having exhausted all the resources 


288 


SERIOUS HOURS 


of heart and mind to render vice amiable, even 
when their fall would seem to be less the effect 
of a criminal will than the result of a kind of 
fatality ? Your answer to all this would be 
emphatically, no! 

But while young ladies will neither listen 
to nor look at scenes of this nature, many, alas ! 
do not scruple to look at them in books, where 
they are much more dangerous, for being 
adorned with all the charms of style, and 
because the persons represented are made to 
speak and act in a much more luring manner 
than they do in reality. They devour with 
avidity those dangerous, and sometimes 
scurrilous pages; but while they chain their 
attention to the matter they are reading, their 
imagination gains the ascendancy over all 
the senses, and under their united action 
images are formed which leave a lasting 
impression on the mind—images of misfortune 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


289 


that has befallen persons either through their 
own fault or the fault of others, and which, 
through sympathy, the human heart, whether 
wrong or right, is always ready to find a pretext 
to justify. 

In reading of those misfortunes she may 
perhaps recognize the hand of divine ven¬ 
geance pursuing the criminal culprit, which 
is of a nature to inspire her with a sentiment 
of fear that deters from the commission of 
crime ; but such sentiments have been felt by 
the heroes of the novel which she has read, 
and nevertheless they have fallen into the 
abyss which they so much dreaded, I would 
almost say while fleeing from it. But when 
they take their stand on a declivity so steep 
and slippery, nothing short of a miracle can 
save them. 

Such is precisely the nature of the danger in 
which the readers of such books place them- 


290 


SERIOUS HOURS 


selves. In those books human frailty is 
idolized, deeds committed through it are either 
necessary or excusable, the hair-breadth escapes, 
and often the tragical conclusion of their story, 
will often inspire the reader with a salutary 
terror, it is true ; but will that feeling destroy 
all those tender sympathizing sentiments that 
were felt while dreading it ? Of course this 
fear is felt by the will, but the imagination 
has already finished its work; it has seen, 
heard and felt by the senses; it has delighted 
and fascinated the soul by those images whose 
charms cannot be destroyed by the unfortunate 
issue of those struggles in which frailty played 
such an important role. 

The will, distracted by the tumult of external 
things, and the variety of her occupations 
or pleasures, will soon lose this sentiment of 
terror on which she seems to count so much, 
but the imagination will conserve for a long 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


291 


time the impressions and images upon which 
it has feasted, and which will form the con¬ 
stant subject of her thoughts during the day 
and of her dreams during the night. 

Hence, the books that are capable of pro¬ 
ducing such results are evidently bad, and if 
you wish to preserve intact the innocence of 
your heart you should never take one of them 
in your hands. If you wish to conceive a 
deep horror for vice, and guard against the 
snares of passion, you will more readily and 
securely attain your end by reading a few 
serious books in which truth is presented in 
its own simplicity without artifice. Books 
in which the author, realizing the importance 
of his mission, directly addresses the mind 
without trying to captivate the heart and ima¬ 
gination, or to render vice amiable first in 
order to inspire you with horror for it after¬ 
wards. If you wish to be true to yourself; 


292 


SERIOUS HOURS 


if by your readings your object is to culti¬ 
vate a love for virtue and horror for evil, 
novels are not the books that you will have 
recourse to. 

Hence, to draw a practical conclusion from 
our considerations on this subject, you may 
safely say that a book is, if not bad, at least 
dangerous when its tendencies are to render 
interesting and agreeable such deeds or 
language as you would neither look at,nor 
listen to. This should be the first rule by 
which to judge of the moral worth of the books 
you wish to read. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


293 


CHAPTER XXII. 

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

MO the rule given in the foregoing chapter 
may be added another of equal import¬ 
ance in the selection of suitable books to read. 
Generally speaking, all books that draw too 
much on the imagination may be considered 
as dangerous. You are well aware, and it has 
been frequently said, in the course of this 
little book, that the imagination is precious and 
useful when regulated with discretion, and 
directed with prudence ; but the moment that 
it is allowed to assume a preponderance which 
does not belong to it, it becomes noxious to 
our spiritual and temporal welfare. Moreover, 
it is united to the senses by the most intimate 
ties, through which it receives impressions 


294 


SERIOUS HOURS 


and images that keep it in constant activity; 
we should constantly labor to check, rather than 
to encourage its dev elopment; while we should 
spare neither pains nor diligence to develop 
the intelligence which, when left in ignorance 
of truths that could enlighten and elevate it, 
becomes the victim of cruel doubt, idleness, 
effeminacy and pleasure. 

There are books said to be useless, and 
consequently harmless, but the conclusion, 
without being false, is not just; for we have 
just as much reason to believe they are danger¬ 
ous as to admit the contrary. Now, if a book 
is indeed useless you cannot bear to read it, 
and since you do read it, it must certainly con¬ 
tain something interesting which renders it 
agreeable to you; it pleases some faculty of 
your soul, some habitual thought of your 
mind, some predominating disposition of your 
heart. 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


295 


That a book may be read without profit is 
quite true. But that the same book can be 
read without danger of sustaining some loss is 
evidently false, unless that it be maintained 
that we are justified in having no proposed end 
for our actions ; or that we may act solely for 
pastime which is diametrically opposed to the 
end for which we were created: Our time 
is too precious to be used indifferently. Again 
if there is'-in life anything that may be read 
or omitted without losing some advantage, or 
committing some evil, it is certainly not a 
book, for it always contains either some facts 
or some pictures, or some maxims capable of 
making an impression on your mind and 
heart. 

The intelligence is formed and developed by 
means of language, and language, considered 
from this point of view, furnishes us with no 
idle words. Hence a useless book is, in the 


296 


SERIOUS HOURS 


true acceptation of the term, a book that amuses 
the imagination and the heart. Now, whatever 
the soul receives through these channels must 
be of some importance for good or evil. Hence 
we are not justified, on the plea of indiffer¬ 
ence to accept any book that falls under our 
hands without being thoroughly examined 
and competently recommended. 

Here, of course, a new difficulty occurs : at 
your age, and with your experience, you are 
unable to judge what books you should read; 
you are therefore obliged to follow the advice 
of others in the matter, but not the advice of 
all indiscriminately, as all are not competent to 
direct you yn a matter of such grave impor¬ 
tance. Popularity will give a wide circulation 
to a book, but can by^no means recommend it; 
hence public opinion is not a rule that will 
guarantee you against deception. 

Those in whom you place entire confidence 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


297 


to choose a book for you should themselves 
be recommended by their sincere and generous 
piety, the dignity of their life, the solidity of 
their judgment, strengthened by an extensive 
knowledge of men and things. Above all 
things be on your guard against the books 
recommended by worldly women, lovers of 
pleasure and parties; those whose light and 
frivolous minds sicken at serious thoughts, 
who are on their guard lest they may do too 
much for God, and who vainly endeavor to 
reconcile, in a monstrous union, the maxims of 
the world with those of the Gospel, the 
seductions of pleasure with the austerities of 
virtue, desiring to serve God and mammon. 

If, by some negligence, or even in good 
faith, you open one of those books against 
which you have been warned, shut it the 
moment you feel your imagination excited 
by the images it offers, or when you perceive 


298 


SERIOUS HOURS 


that the mind’s curiosity becomes aroused to 
its agreeable narration of incidents, for it is 
almost always an unfavorable sign of a book 
that produces those and similar effects. Such 
is not the manner in which truth and virtue 
affect us. Their action is milder and calmer, 
and has the heart and will, rather than the 
imagination for its object. Hence, be on your 
guard, lest by some indiscretion you allow a 
poison to enter your soul, which is never more 
dangerous than when it seems least to be 
feared. 

Finally, to resume in a few words, all that 
we have considered on the subject: If you 
would place the moral merit of a book beyond 
question, ask yourself if you would like to 
have its author for your spiritual director; do 
not think that this precaution is exaggerated 
or uncalled for; for between the author of a 
book and the reader there are relations estab-* 


OF A YOUNG LADY. 


299 


lished so intimate that they beget a kind of 
intellectual paternity, which produces deeper 
and more durable effects than you may be 
aware of. 

To express the influence that our actions 
exercise over our life and over our fate; man 
is said to be the son of his works. Tor a 
similar reason, it may be said of him, but more 
especially of woman, that he is the son of his 
readings, for reading forms such an important 
factor in the formation of the heart and mind 
that it often modifies our whole being. Be¬ 
sides, if you wish to profit by your reading, 
read only a few books, but read them well, 
with close attention, reflecting long and often 
on what you have read, identifying your very 
thoughts and sentiments with the subject 
matter of their pages. But let all this have 
its practical utility, let all those advantages 
find a living expression in your language, 
in your actions, and in your whole life. 


END. 
























































































































Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

































































